my $fork_num = ( $#hostlist <= MAXFORK ? $#hostlist : MAXFORK );

for ( 0..$fork_num ) {

	##
	## create bi-directional socket for parent/child communication

	my $to_child = IO::Socket->new();
	my $to_parent = IO::Socket->new();

	socketpair($to_child, $to_parent, PF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, PF_UNSPEC)
		or die "Couldn't create socket pair:  $!\n";

	my $pid;
	if ( $pid = fork ) {
				
		### parent process

		undef $to_parent;
		$to_child->autoflush;

		$children{$pid} = $to_child;

		sleep 1;
		next;

		}

	else {

		### child process

		undef $to_child; undef %children;
		$to_parent->autoflush(1);

		local $SIG{PIPE} = sub { print " CAUGHT PIPE\n\n";
												die "Signal caught in Child $$:  $!\n"; };

		## 
		## main processing occurs in the subroutine.  

		&process_config_job($fork_num, $to_parent);

	}

}