This mechanism assumes that people didn't do nasty things like "kill -9" the process (which people shouldn't do anyway, but that cargo cult solution gets repeated all the time).

A better solution would be something that gets reset automatically by the operating system even if the process stops dead in its tracks. I give an "only-one" solution in my "highlander" column, which could be extended to "only six" with a bit of cleverness. In fact, I have that bit of cleverness scheduled for a future column idea. {grin}

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
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