#!/usr/bin/perl
# batch.pl

use IO::Select;
use IO::Pipe;

my @list = ("a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", 
            "g", "h", "i", "j", "k", "l");
my $children = 5;
my $counter = 0;
my $size = @list;

foreach (@list) {
  $counter++;
  if (($counter%$children) && ($counter != $size)) {
    push(@temp,$_);
  } else {
    push(@temp,$_);
    @batch = @temp;
    @temp = @blank;
    foreach (@batch) {
      my $pipe = IO::Pipe->new();
      my $pid = fork;
      die "Bad Fork $!" unless defined $pid;

      if ($pid) {
        $pipe->reader();
#        $select->add( $pipe );

      } else {
        $pipe->writer();
        $pipe->autoflush(1);

        &dosomething;
        exit;
      }
    }
  }
}

sub dosomething {
  sleep 15;
  print "$_\n";
}