I recently upgraded one of my Win2K servers to Win2K3. After the upgrade, the Win32::Process module appears to be slightly broken in that it does not properly state the current process state. I have posted the issue with active state (who as far as I know supplied this module) but until there is a fix, I need to find another solution for tracking process state. The following example demostrates the issue:

my($exitcode,$junk,$process,$process2,$process3);
use Win32::Process;
#create a notepad process
Win32::Process::Create(
       $process,
       "c:\\winnt\\system32\\notepad.exe",
       "",
        0,
        NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
        '.',
        ) or die "Could not start process\n";
   #get the processid
   $procid=$process->GetProcessID();
   print "PROCID: $procid\n";
   #open the procid and get the exit code
   if(Win32::Process::Open($process2,$procid,0)==1){
    Win32::Process::Open($process2,$procid,0);
    $exit=$process2->GetExitCode( $exitcode );
    print "EXIT for PROCID-$procid: $exit\n";
    print "Enter to continue\n";
   }else{
    print "ProcessID $procid not running\n";
   }
   $junk=<STDIN>;
   #ok, kill the process
   $process->Kill( $exitcode );
   print "$procid Process Killed\n";
   print "Enter to continue\n";
   $junk=<STDIN>;
   #now get the procid and exit code again
   if(Win32::Process::Open($process3,$procid,0)==1){
    Win32::Process::Open($process3,$procid,0);
    $exit=$process3->GetExitCode( $exitcode );
    print "EXIT for PROCID-$procid: $exit\n";
   }else{
    print "ProcessID $procid not running\n";
   }
   exit;
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Under Win2K, this should show the following after opening and closing notepad:

PROCID: 1016
EXIT for PROCID-1016: 1
Enter to continue

1016 Process Killed
Enter to continue

ProcessID 1016 not running

However, on my Win2k3 systems, it is doing the following:

PROCID: 1980
EXIT for PROCID-1980: 1
Enter to continue

1980 Process Killed
Enter to continue

EXIT for PROCID-1980: 1 

Even though it *is* properly killing the notepad processID, it still seems to think it is openable with the module.

Now, all I need to do is have the script kick off a process that will eventually end on its own (it does not need killed) and check in to see if that process is still running every 10-15 seconds. (ie, all I really want is to know when Win32::Process::Open($process3,$procid,0)==0 ). I do not have a way to have that external process mark a file while it's running, so that is not an option. Is there another module I can use to check for a running process by process ID under Win32?