I can't find the proper solution to a perl problem...
In a perl program I am using exec to run a compiled binary. I need to run the binary over and over again. I have created a sub{} that performs the following:
 
  • opens a pipe
     
  • forks
     
  • The child process opens STDOUT on the pipe
     
  • The child process uses exec to run the binary
     
  • The parent process reads data from the pipe
     
  • both parent and child close their pipe handles

    This works fine except it leaves the binary process as a <defunct> zombie. This eventually takes away all the file handles and starts giving an error along the lines of "unable to fork"
    The manpage for ps says this:
    Processes marked <defunct> are dead processes (so-called "zombies") that remain because their parent has not destroyed them properly. These processes will be destroyed by init(8) if the parent process exits.

    What is the proper way to destroy a child process?

    In reply to zombies after fork() by terry

    Title:
    Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
    and:  <code> code here </code>
    to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.