# Perl >= 5.10 my $pid=fork() // die "Can't fork: $!"; # Perl < 5.9 manually my $pid=fork(); defined($pid) or die "Can't fork: $!"; # 123456789012345 # 15 extra characters # Perl < 5.9 + your module my $pid=def_or_call(fork(),sub { die "Can't fork: $!" }); # 123456789012345678 # 18 extra characters -- oops! # And you should never forget to wrap die in a sub ... # Perl < 5.9 + your module with defined_or_die # (remember to check if arguments are ALWAYS evaluated left-to-right!) # (or find a better solution ...) my $pid=def_or_die(fork(),"Can't fork: $!"); # 12345 # just 5 extra characters - 10 less than manually # and no wrapper needed #### sub def_or_die { my ($v,$msg)=@_; return def_or_call($v,sub { require Carp; die Carp::some_magic_helper_function($msg); }); } #### sub def_or_carp { my ($v,$msg)=@_; return def_or_call($v,sub { require Carp; Carp::please_ignore_these_wrappers(); Carp::carp($msg); }); } #### sub def_or_carp { my ($v,$msg)=@_; return def_or_call($v,sub { if (exists $INC{'CGI/Carp.pm'}) { # CGI::Carp loaded CGI::Carp::please_ignore_these_wrappers(); CGI::Carp::carp($msg); } else { require Carp; Carp::please_ignore_these_wrappers(); Carp::carp($msg); } }); }