ok with plenty of fiddling around here's what I've been able to decipher. I pass

my (@array)=$telnet->cmd(string => 'ls', prompt => '/=>/');
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gives be one line, which is blank. Though if I pass this line

my ($a, $b, $c)=$telnet->cmd(string => 'ls', prompt => '/=>/');
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and print the results I get 3 lines of output so the system will pass in list context, but I fear I'm missing why it won't pass it to an array. below is the output from the a,b,c variables.

btm.swi
 secondary.swi
 cfg/
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Any thoughts?

thanks for all your input!