Preprocessor in Perl?

Hello,
 
I have this situation wherein I have to run a perl script over
pre-processed files. Eg: File "A.cfg" needs to be preprocessed to say
"A" and then my perl script works on it. This preprocessing is done, as
of now, by command line call of " gcc -E A.cfg > A" and then a command
to run the perl script (say 'main.pl'). I intend to club these two
activities into a single perl scipt.
 
i.e. my new script does the following:
1> Get the pre processed version.
2> Runs perl script 'main.pl'
 
Question1 )  I found out about "filepp" as a preprocessor built usig
perl. Could anyone please show me an example or a code snippet of its
use? Also, for people who'e used such preprocessors.is there any known
issue or limitation with using "filepp" (or equivalent) preprocessor?
 
Question 2) I am not very sure if I can make another perl script run
from a perl program itself. How an I do this?
 
 
**I want to avoid the use of Makefile for the above operations.
 
 
Thanks in advance,
Adarsh