Welp.. turns out that if I pass the command+args as an array instead of a string to Open3 the problem disapears. I don't even have to create an script to run large command lines.

The DOS problem was eliminated by slurping up the args via set VAR=%*.

So to put an end to this here's the code as I am going to run with it.

# RETURNS: %OSexec = ( stdout => $stdout, stderr => $stderr pid => $pi
+d )
sub OSexecute {
    my @execute = @_;
    my $stdin = IO::Select->new();
    # not sure what difference <&STDIN and \*STDIN have
    $stdin->add("\*STDIN");
    my $din = IO::Handle->new();
    $din->autoflush(1);
    $stdin->add($din);
     
    my $stdout = IO::Select->new();
    $stdout->add(\*STDOUT);
    my $dout = IO::Handle->new();
    $dout->autoflush(1);
    $stdout->add($dout);
         
    my $stderr = IO::Select->new();
    $stderr->add(\*STDERR);
    my $derr = IO::Handle->new();
    $derr->autoflush(1);
    $stderr->add($derr);
         
    my ( $pid, $val);
    my $debug = "false";

    #$debug = "true";
    if ( $debug =~ /true/i ) {
        print "OSify::Execute::OSexecute::\$execute = @execute\n";
    }

    # Here is the actual execution
    eval {
           $pid = open3( $din, $dout, $derr, @execute );
        # waitpid waits for the proces to exit
        # $val could be used as a means to determine status
        # while waiting if that functionality becomes needed.
           $val = waitpid(-1,0); #wait's for process to complete
    };                 
    $@ && die "OSify::OSexecute died upon execution of\n@execute\nWith
+$@";

    # Gather the results
    my $line;
    # Standard Out
    
    my @stdout = <$dout>;
    my $out;
    foreach $line (@stdout) {
        $line = OSify::Utility::trimSpaces($line);
        $out = $out . $line;
    }
    if ( ! $out ) {
        $out = 1;
    }
         
    # Standard Error
     my @stderr = <$derr>;
     my $err;
    foreach $line ( @stderr ) {
        $line = OSify::Utility::trimSpaces($line);
         $err = $err . $line;
    }

    if ( ! $err ) {
        $err = 1;
    }

    # Flush and close the Filehandles
    $din->flush();
    $din->close;
    $dout->flush();
    $dout->close;
    $derr->flush();
    $derr->close;
    
    my %OSexec = ( 
        stdout => $out, 
        stderr => $err,
        pid => $pid, 
    );
    
    return %OSexec;
}
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