The system() function will exec a sh and return its exit status. The exit status of "perl_src.c_pl ${fl} || { echo \"$?, wrong;\"; }" will always be 0, unless the echo fails (which is very unlikely).

Code:

$ sh -c 'perl -e "exit 5" || echo perl exit status $?'
perl exit status 5
$ echo sh exit status $?
sh exit status 0

Something along the lines of the following is probably want you want:

Code:

sh -c 'perl ....; pexit=$?; [ $pexit -ne 0 ] && echo $pexit; exit $pexit'

Although, personally, I don't see the point of echoing from the shell pipeline (unless that was part of your troubleshooting process). You can check the exit status in the C code and generate the appropriate message there.

Regards,
Alister