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";