sub testfork {
       if (($pid = fork) == 0)
       {
	exec("date +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' >date.tmp");
       }
       elsif ($pid > 0)
       {
	#Parent
wait;
	open (DA, "date.tmp");
	$da=<DA>;
	close (DA);
	unlink ("date.tmp") or die "Cannot unlink date.tmp ($!)" ;
	print "the date returned from the child process is: $da\n";
       }
       else
       {
         print ("Could not fork: errno is $!\n");
       }
}