#!C:/PROGRA~1/PERL/BIN/PERL.EXE -w use strict; #my $prog="last"; # the program to run # last is a Unix command, use a DOS command when testing in Windows console mode my $prog="dir"; # the program to run my $line; my $cnt=0; open (FILE, "$prog |") or die "Cannot run $prog and get the pipe."; while ($line=<FILE>) { $cnt++; # I am sure that $cnt holds a number so I don't need $cnt=$cnt+1; print "$cnt\t$line"; } close(FILE); print "\n\n\nThe program $prog printed $cnt lines of data.\n";