I guess you only wrote it like this in this example, but just for reference, I've seen too many people ignoring errors. You should test the return value of the fork() better. It's a nonzero number in the parent, zero in the child and undef if the fork() failed!:

   my $pid = fork();
   die "Ouch, can't fork: $^En\" unless defined $pid;
   unless ($pid) {
     ...
   }
[download]

or if you want it to look more like your code:

   unless (my $pid = fork()) {
     die "Ouch, can't fork: $^En\" unless defined $pid;
     ...
   }
[download]

Jenda
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
   -- Rick Osborne

Edit by castaway: Closed small tag in signature