for ($c = 1; $c < 17; $c++) {
        if (fork() == 0) {
                exec ("CAD program with $c options...details not important");
                exit;
        }
        wait;
        system ("sleep 20");    #so NFS gets updated...?
        if (-e "cmdos/$n[$c].done") {
                $complete = 1;  #in other words: do nothing
        } else {
                die ("Dependency file $n[$c].done did not get created--exiting!\n");
        }
}