C:\foo\>perl -e "$cmd=system(dir);print $cmd;"

<snip ...>

 Directory of C:\foo\

08/31/2006  10:06a      <DIR>          .
08/31/2006  10:06a      <DIR>          ..
11/21/2003  02:49p      <DIR>          .c--
11/21/2003  02:49p      <DIR>          .c#
     <snipped>

               3 File(s)          2,731 bytes
               9 Dir(s)  67,502,247,936 bytes free
0 <=== There is the UNshifted system status/return code referenced above....
C:\foo\>