Run program (and respond to prompts) in background with perl?

Question

How can I run a program on the command line and pass it input (after it runs) using perl? The goal is to run it on a cron script and design it so that it can't interrupt the user

For example, I'm looking to do this:

<run command>
Input required (program prompt): <injected by perl>
<end>

Answer 1

Using pipe?

perl xxx.pl | command

Answer 2

Expect will handle all of the tough parts for you. You'll have cron execute your perl program and it in turn will spawn the program requiring interaction. Then it's just a matter of coding the appropriate responses to the output the other program produces.