use POSIX ":sys_wait_h"; # for nonblocking read
my %children;

$SIG{CHLD} = sub {
    # don't change $! and $? outside handler
    local ($!, $?);
    my $pid = waitpid(-1, WNOHANG);
    return if $pid == -1;
    return unless defined $children{$pid};
    delete $children{$pid};
    cleanup_child($pid, $?);
};

while (1) {
    my $pid = fork();
    die "cannot fork" unless defined $pid;
    if ($pid == 0) {
        # ...
        exit 0;
    } else {
        $children{$pid}=1;
        # ...
        system($command);
        # ...
    }
}