$counter = 0; $pid_count = 0; do { if ($pid_count < 5) { ++$counter; ++$pid_count; if (!defined($$counter = fork())) { ## <---This is line 175 warn "Unable to fork $counter: $!"; } elsif ($$counter == 0) { print "Running this command line: $cmd[$counter]\n"; exec("$cmd[$counter]"); warn "Can't exec $cmd[$counter]: $!"; } else { waitpid($$counter, 0); --$pid_count; } } } until ($counter == $max_frag_id);