# (untested) my $pid=fork(); my @cmd_and_args=('my_executable_that_seg_faults'); # maybe push @cmd_and_args,qw( some arguments for the program ); defined($pid) or die "Can't fork: $!"; if ($pid) { # parent process waitpid $pid; #<-- sets $? } else { # child process open STDOUT,'>','/dev/null' or die "Can't redirect STDOUT: $!"; exec { $cmd_and_args[0] } @cmd_and_args; die "exec failed: $!"; }