corion@aliens:~/tmp$ cat test.pl
#!perl -w
use strict;

my $pid = open my $fh, 'sleep 1000 |'
    or die "Couldn't spawn: $! / $?";

print "Spawned child as $pid";
print "Doing own work $_\n" for 1..10;

print "Killing child $pid";
kill 9 => $pid;
print "done\n";

##</code><code>##

corion@aliens:~/tmp$ perl -w test.pl
Spawned child as 26868Doing own work 1
Doing own work 2
Doing own work 3
Doing own work 4
Doing own work 5
Doing own work 6
Doing own work 7
Doing own work 8
Doing own work 9
Doing own work 10
Killing child 26868done