dd if=/dev/random of=test.random bs=64 count=1 dd if=/dev/zero of=test.zero bs=64 count=1 echo "hello world!" > hello.txt #### use IO::Uncompress::Gunzip qw(gunzip $GunzipError); my $output; my $status = gunzip $ARGV[0] => \$output, Strict => 1 or die "Failed!"; print $GunzipError; print $output; #### test.pl test.random test.pl test.zero test.pl hello.txt