DBI->connect(....) || fatal(error message)

##</code><code>##

sub openDB {
	my ($database, $user_id, $password) = ();

	open( CFG, $db_cfg ) or fatal("Cannot open databse config file.");
	($database, $user_id, $password, $pwkey) = split( ',', <CFG>);
	$done = 0;
	$num_tries = 0;
	while (!$done) {
		$num_tries += 1;

		#  If we exceeded the custom amount of attempts call error routine
		if ($num_tries > 4) {
			fatal (" Could not open database: $DBI::errstr");
			$done = 1;
		}
		else {

			#  Make the database connection
			eval {
				$dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:$database:<ipaddress:port>", $user_id, $password);
			}

			#  If there is an error try again
			if ($@) {
				next;
			}

			#  No error drop out of loop
			else {
				$done = 1;
			}
		}
	}
}