One more thing to try is to add a trailing space after the directory 
spec, as in;
    system qq{$prog "$dir " $dest}
or
    my $cmd = qq{$prog "$dir "  "$dest"};

I did some quick tests with;
##########Perl code
my $prog = 'c:\windows\desktop\some-batch.bat';
my $dir  = 'c:\windows\desktop\jim';    # no trailing backslash
my $dest = 'thelabel';

# both the directory and batch files do exist
if (-e $prog) {print "prog found\n"} else {print "prog NOT found\n"};
if (-d $dir)  {print "dir  found\n"} else {print "dir  NOT found\n"};

# Version 1, works
system qq{$prog "$dir " $dest}; # quoted $dir in case blanks in path
                                # and note the extra space in "$dir "

# Version 2, works
my $cmd = qq{$prog "$dir "  "$dest"}; # note the extra space in "$dir "
print "\n\nCMD ==", $cmd, "=\n";
system "$cmd";
# end Perl code

### some-batch.bat contains
echo %1
echo %2
dir %1

The perl code above fails if the trailing space after the dir spec is 
omitted. The space can be in the original variable or added when the 
command is created (as I did above).

jim

$Bill Luebkert wrote:

> Michael D Schleif wrote:
>   
> 
> >* On 2005:10:27:15:07:31-0500 I, Michael D Schleif <mds@[...].org>, scribed:
> >    
> >
> >>I have a perl script that calls a batch file (necessary), and passes it
> >>two arguments.  The first argument is a directory name, and the second a
> >>simple label.
> >>
> >>When I used forward-slashes (/) everywhere, the perl script behaves as
> >>expected; but, the batch file refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the
> >>directory name; at least in the context of passing it to the batch file
> >>in a system() call, as I need to parse the exit codes.
> >>
> >>    my $dir = "E:/backup";
> >>
> >>Yes, I test `-d $dir' successfully.  The batch file refuses to accept
> >>$dir while using forward-slashes.  I am using s/// to replace (/) with
> >>any number of (\).  I have tried up to eight (8) back-slashes; but,
> >>everytime the script mis-behaves, and I have not been able to complete
> >>this simple task.
> >>
> >>What am I missing?
> >>
> >>What do you think?
> >>      
> >>
> >I am sorry that I did not publish any code in the original post.  I have
> >run into back/forward slash issues on windows before; and I hoped that
> >there was a simple, code-agnostic solution.
> >
> >I have reduced the Perl code to this:
> >
> >    
> >
> 
> I ran it like this and it seems OK, but I don't have the same conditions:
> 
> use diagnostics;
> use strict;
> use warnings;
> 
> my $prog = "E:/usr/ov/bin/nvhotbackup.bat";
> my $dir = 'E:/backup';
> 
> if (not -d $dir) {
> 	mkdir $dir or die "mkdir $dir: $! ($^E)";
> }
> 
> my $dest = timestamp ();
> if (not -d "$dir/$dest") {
> 	mkdir "$dir/$dest" or die "mkdir $dir/$dest: $! ($^E)";
> }
> 
> do_prog ($prog, $dir, $dest);
> 
> exit 0;
> 
> # Run system command & return exit code
> 
> sub do_prog {
> 	my ($prog, $dir, $dest) = @_;
> 
> $dir =~ s!/!\\!g;	# this one you definitely need
> $prog =~ s!/!\\!g;	# this may be optional
> my $cmd = qq{$prog "$dir" $dest};
> print "CMD == ", $cmd, "\n";
> 
> # my $null = "NUL";
> # system "$cmd >$null 2>&1";
> 
> system $cmd;		# seems OK
> 
> # my @res = `$cmd`;	# also tried this OK
> #print "res='@res'\n";
> 
> }
> 
> # Get date & time string
> 
> sub timestamp {
> 	@_ = localtime ($_[0] ? shift : time);
> return sprintf "%d%02d%02d%02d%02d%02d", $_[5]+1900, $_[4]+1, $_[3], $_[2],
>   $_[1], $_[0];
> 
> }
> 
> __END__
>   
>