http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=37063

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question: ⭐ (programs and processes)

How do I start two programs without waiting for first one to be finished ?

Originally posted as a Categorized Question.

  • Comment on How do I start two programs without waiting for first one to be finished ?

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Re: How do I start two programs without waiting for first one to be finished ?⭐
by tye (Sage) on Oct 17, 2000 at 10:12 UTC 
    system( 1, "first" );  # Won't wait.
system( "second" );    # Will wait.

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    This is could be very portable though it also still appears to be mostly undocumented. ):

    Update: I posted this long ago and later learned that system(1,...) was never allowed to work except on Windows (and OS/2, for which it was originally written). Any documentation on it appears to be relegated to perlport.

         - tye
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Re: How do I start two programs without waiting for first one to be finished ?
by Anonymous Monk on Feb 10, 2001 at 00:59 UTC
    On Windows, I use this to launch one program and not wait, and then another with waiting. 
    use Win32::Process;

my $path = "C:\\mydirectory\\myprogram.exe";

Win32::Process::Create(
  $Process,
  $path,
  "myprogram",
  0,
  NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
  "."
)
or die "Can't Create - $!";

chdir "c:\\Program Files\\CoolRuler";
system "coolruler.exe";

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Re: How do I start two programs without waiting for first one to be finished ?
by walto (Pilgrim) on Mar 16, 2008 at 07:02 UTC
    Linux:  system "first &";
    Windows:  system "start /b first";
    Both start first in background.
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Re: How do I start two programs without waiting for first one to be finished ?
by runrig (Abbot) on Oct 17, 2000 at 04:23 UTC
    Fork them and run in the background: 
    system "( sleep 10; ls -l ) &";

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    Or use fork() explicitly: 
    if ( $pid = fork ) {
    # this is the parent
}
elsif ( defined $pid ) {
    # this is the child
    system "myprogram";
}
else {
    die "can't fork: $!";
}

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