kill no workee

[hbo]

On Linux, with Perl 5.8.0 (but on many another combination of OS and Perl version) the following code doesn't do what I expect:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use POSIX qw(pause);
use strict;
my $ppid=$$;
$SIG{HUP}=sub {return};
my $pid=fork;
if ($pid){
    pause;
    print "parent woke up\n";
    waitpid $pid,0;
    print "parent reaped child\n";
} else {
    die "fork error $!" if (!defined $pid);
    sleep 2; # what can I say, it works.
    print "child is about to signal parent (at $ppid)\n";
#    `kill -1 $ppid`;
    my $cnt=kill,1,$ppid;
    print "child signaled $cnt process(es)\n";
    print "child about to exit\n";
    exit;
}

This program outputs the following:

hbo@owen|1337> perl test
child is about to signal parent (at 24421)
child signaled 0 process(es)
child about to exit

A 'kill -1 $ppid' from the shell gets the program unstuck. If I comment out the internal kill function and subsequent print statement, and uncomment the back-tick kill, it works as I'd like:

hbo@owen|1338> perl test
child is about to signal parent (at 24428)
parent woke up
child about to exit
parent reaped child

I've never gotten Perl's built-in kill to work for me. Any ideas?

[hbo]

So, why is it I can't see the extra comma in the kill statement until after I post the question? 8(

Sorry for wasting your time.

[daeve]

++ for coming back on and posting, both that you had found the problem, and for telling us what it was.

I wish more people would do that. A lot of folks come back and say "thanks for all the great help" but never come back and say "Well thus and so was what I had and with your help this is what I ended up with". Follow through is nice. ;-)

Just my $0.02
Daeve