#!/usr/bin/perl

#...
$maxfork= 20;         # maximum number of procs

$stime = time();      # get current time in secs since 1970

# --- check if older proc is already running ------
stat $lock;
if (-e _) {
    $curtime = scalar localtime($stime);
    print STDERR "$curtime: LOCKED, skipping.\n";
    exit 1;
}

# nope, so lock it
open LOCK, ">$lock";
print LOCK "$$";
close LOCK;

$loop = 0;
$forked = 0;

for ($count=1; $count<50; $count++){
    if ( $forked > $maxfork) {
        wait;
        $forked--;
    }
    if ( $pid = fork ) {
        $forked++;             # parent
    } elsif ( defined $pid) {  # child
        # The place where I would like to do the work against one of the array cells?
				print "Fork number is $forked - Counter is $count\n";
    } else { 
	die "error forking!";
    }
    $loop++;
}

# wait for child procs
while ( wait != -1) { ; };