Multiple-arg system() doesn't quite work like that (read this). Redirection using the shell metacharacter ">" is handled by the shell, which reads the entire string "program $ref_file > $outfile", parses it, and executes the command with redirection.
When you do multiple-arg system, you're going raw and skipping the shell (usually). Redirections have to be performed manually and you'll lose some convenience you get with using a shell. Example:
sub executeComm {
my ($outfile, @comm) = @_;
print "cmd: <", join("> <" => @comm), ">\n";
# manual redirection - dup(2) STDOUT first
open(my $ORIGSTDOUT, ">&" . fileno(*STDOUT)) or die $!;
open(*STDOUT, ">", $outfile) or die $!;
# run it!
my $exit = system @comm;
# restore STDOUT
open(*STDOUT, ">&=" . fileno($ORIGSTDOUT)) or die $!;
print "exit: ", $exit, "\n";
}
print "before\n";
executeComm($outfile, $program, $ref_file);
print "after\n";
If you really want a quick-and-dirty fix for your "whitespace-in-filename" problem, place single-quotes around the filenames, as in:
executeComm ("program '$ref_file' > '$outfile'");
Now make sure you don't have single-quotes in the filenames... |