#run, wait, and continue
system("/path/to/perl/script.pl");
#like above, but stores the output
#note: backticks ` not apostrophe '
@lines = `/path/to/perl/script.pl`;
#run and exit
exec("/path/to/perl/script.pl");
#run, continue, and don't wait
fork("/path/to/perl/script.pl");