Cant execute perl script from php

Hello every one....im fairly new with php and perl and i was wondering if anyone knows how to include(execute) a perl script from php...i have tried to use passthru, exec but they do not seem to work for me.

virtual (string filename)

from php.net

virtual() is an Apache-specific function which is equivalent to  in mod_include. It performs an Apache sub-request. It is useful for including CGI scripts or .shtml files, or anything else that you would parse through Apache. Note that for a CGI script, the script must generate valid CGI headers. At the minimum that means it must generate a Content-type header. For PHP files, you need to use include() or require(); virtual() cannot be used to include a document which is itself a PHP file.