#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $pid = fork();
if ($pid == 0)
{
        # This is the child process.
        # exec() the external program.
        exec("my_program")
            or die "could not exec my_program: $!";
}
elsif (!defined($pid))
{
        die "could not fork";
}

# Everything below here is the parent process
print "This is the parent process\n";