use strict;
use warnings;
 
use constant FORK_WAIT => 2;
use constant MAX_ATTEMPTS => 10;
our $attempt = 0;
 
my $pid = undef;
 
while (not defined ($pid = fork())) {
    die "Too many failed fork() attempts: $!\n"
        if ++$attempt > MAX_ATTEMPTS;
    warn "fork() failed: $!\n";
    sleep FORK_WAIT;
}
 
if ($pid) {
 
# I'm the father
 
} else {
 
 # I'm the son
 
}