#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use IO::Socket;
use strict;

#sock is my connection where I report what is going on
my $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr => 'hostname.org',
                                        PeerPort => '1234',
                                        Proto => 'tcp'
                                        );

my $return_value = long_running_function();

print $sock "$return_value\n";
close $sock;