returning values/information from perl apps to php apps..

hi... i'm trying to return values/information from a perl app to a php app. what's the best way?? foo.php blah.... res = system(dog.pl) . . ----------- dog.pl $vars.... . . . ------------------ the issue i'm having is that perl only seems to allow an app to have an 'exit' value of a short int. i need to return values that might be multiple arrarys. should i simply write the perl return values into an output file, and read the output vars from the output file in the php file... comments/thoughts/etc.... thanks.... -bruce