use File::Temp;
    use constant STATUS_DIR => '/tmp/status-dir';

    { 
        my $fh;  # hidden from outer code

        # status is logged only when you have created
        # the status dir by hand; this lets you turn off
        # logging by deleting the status dir

        if ( -d STATUS_DIR ) {
            $fh = new File::Temp( template => "$$-XXXXXX",
                                  dir      => STATUS_DIR,
                                  suffix   => ".txt",
                                  unlink   => 1  )
                or die "can't open temp file: $!";
            $fh->autoflush(1);
        }

        sub log_status {
            print $fh "$$ - ", scalar localtime, " - ", @_, "\n"
                 if $fh;
        }

        sub close_status {
            $fh->close if $fh;
        }
    }

##</code><code>##

    # here is the meat of our worker code

    log_status("worker starting; config=blah...");
    # ... work ...
    log_status("worker starting stage two");
    # ... more work ...
    log_status("worker starting stage three");
    sleep 30;  # it's a long one
    # finally!  whew, that was hard work :)
    log_status("worker exiting");
    close_status();

##</code><code>##

$ cat /tmp/status-dir/14416-UXL0uq.txt
14416 - Fri Nov 12 12:40:06 2004 - worker starting; config=blah...
14416 - Fri Nov 12 12:40:06 2004 - worker starting stage two
14416 - Fri Nov 12 12:40:06 2004 - worker starting stage three