Using mysqldump from a Perl script

[MatthewP]

I was hoping that I'd be able to use the mysqldump from a Perl script in order to be able to automate backing up databases, but I keep getting error messages. I'm just calling it with backticks like :

`mysqldump my_db_name > /home/virtual/rest_of_path/backup.sql -p my_password_here` || die ("Cant dump database : $!"

but I get the error message every time. Is this possible somehow, or does anyone know of any other way to automate backing up the database?

Thanks,
Matt.