Re^4: CHLD handler stopped working

Hi Ken,

Sorry for the late reply. I did add a 'sleep 1' statement in the while loop. Everything seems to be working fine now. I had taken a perl class at a community college, and I literally got the if/else statement, with the exit, from the instructor's example code. Should I put a 'return' in the child's else loop?

Thanks,

Rachel

Comment on Re^4: CHLD handler stopped working

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Re^5: CHLD handler stopped working by kcott (Archbishop) on May 27, 2014 at 12:47 UTC
Using `return` was a suggestion. I wrote: Having said that, I recommend you read what exit says about exiting from subroutines. Even if the simple fix I described above works for you now, when you next add a little more "complexiy" you may find yourself with problems again. Perhaps you could return with the child PID instead of using exit; then, if the end of `&multi_dir` is reached, return with zero — that way, you can test the return value of `multi_dir()` and exit if it's the child or continue with the main script if it's the parent. Here's an example: Assuming you read the `exit` doco, you now need to make a decision about whether any of the reasons for not using `exit` in a subroutine apply to you. If none apply, do nothing. Otherwise, pick an appropriate alternative: `die` — discussed in the `exit` doco `POSIX::_exit($status)` — discussed in the `exit` doco `return` — which I suggested: it takes the subroutine out of the equation; example code supplied or something else of your own devising. -- Ken	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re^5: CHLD handler stopped working
by kcott (Archbishop) on May 27, 2014 at 12:47 UTC

Using return was a suggestion.

I wrote:

Having said that, I recommend you read what exit says about exiting from subroutines. Even if the simple fix I described above works for you now, when you next add a little more "complexiy" you may find yourself with problems again. Perhaps you could return with the child PID instead of using exit; then, if the end of &multi_dir is reached, return with zero — that way, you can test the return value of multi_dir() and exit if it's the child or continue with the main script if it's the parent. Here's an example:

Assuming you read the exit doco, you now need to make a decision about whether any of the reasons for not using exit in a subroutine apply to you.

If none apply, do nothing.
Otherwise, pick an appropriate alternative:
- die — discussed in the exit doco
- POSIX::_exit($status) — discussed in the exit doco
- return — which I suggested: it takes the subroutine out of the equation; example code supplied
- or something else of your own devising.

-- Ken

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