use POSIX qw(:sys_wait_h);
$|++;

defined(my $pid = fork) or die "Couldn't fork: $!";

if (!$pid) { # Child
  exec('long_running_command', @args) 
    or die "Couldn't exec: $!";
} else { # Parent
  while (! waitpid($pid, WNOHANG)) {
    print ".";
    sleep 1;
  }
  print "\n";
}