my 2 cents... (This is a snippet of code from a Server using IO::Socket, all of the code is not there but this is the main server portion..... take it for what you like...

my ($acceptSock, $pid, $apprCode, $bufHdr, $buf, $length, $hdr, $req);
my ($p1, $rsp, $rspMsg, $rspHdr, $msg);
while (1)
{

  printf("%sListening on port $args{p}\n", prHdr());
  if (!($acceptSock = $listenSock->accept())) 
  {
    print "bkpt 1: Accept failed: $!\n" if ($debug > 2);
    next;
  }

  # Spawn off a child to handle this connection
  $pid = fork();
  die "Cannot fork: $!" unless defined($pid);

  # PID is zero when we're the child
  if($pid)
  {
    print "Parent continues\n" if ($debug > 2);
    next;
  }

  printf("%sAccepted connection from: %s\n", prHdr(), $acceptSock->pee
+rhost());
  srand(time);
  $apprCode = sprintf("%06d", int(rand 99999)+1);

  # Wait indefinitely for a message
  while (1)
  {
    print "Error reading 2-byte header: $!\n", last
      if (sysread($acceptSock, $bufHdr, 2) != 2);
            
    printf("%sReceiving request\n", prHdr());

    # We got the 2-byte (data length) header
    $length = unpack("n", $bufHdr);
    print "$$: Length from request header = $length\n"
      if($debug > 2);

    print "Error length ($length) is < e-Header size ($EHDR_SIZE)\n", 
+last
      if ($length < $EHDR_SIZE);

    print "Error reading $length bytes of data: $!\n", last
      if (sysread($acceptSock, $buf, $length-2) != $length-2);

    if($debug > 1)
    {
      # Got the data, display it
      &hexDump($bufHdr . $buf);
      print "\n";
    }
}
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