Re^3: Running a process in the background

[tstock]

in reply to Re^2: Running a process in the background
in thread Running a process in the background

if (my $pid = fork) {
   # parent ($pid is process id of child)
   parent_function();
} else {
   # child
   child_function();
   exit;
}

Feel free to read perldoc -f fork, and look at some examples online. This is not really advanced perl, but it requires some attention.

[thor]

From personal experience, the exit is key. Let's just say that I'm glad that I had my own Sun workstation when I started experimenting with fork...*cough*fork bomb*cough*

[binary]

Hello, Remember to check for a fork error after forking:

if (my $pid = fork) {
    ## Parent
  } elsif ($pid == 0) {
    ## Child
  } else {
    ## Error, $pid is undefined
}

[Joost]

undef == 0 - use defined instead:

if (my $pid = fork) {
    ## Parent
  } elsif (defined $pid) {
    ## Child
  } else {
    ## Error, $pid is undefined
}