Try this: 
#!/usr/bin/perl
my $kidpid;

if ( !defined( $kidpid = fork() ) ) {
    #fork returned undef, so failed 
    die "Cannot fork: $!";
}
elsif ( $kidpid == 0 ) {
    # fork returned 0, so this branch is child 
    exec("xterm -e top");
    # if exec fails, fall through to the next statement 
    die "can't exec : $!";
}
else {

    # fork returned 0 nor undef 
    # so this branch is parent 
    sleep(5);
    my $result = kill "TERM", $kidpid;
    print "Killed child process $kidpid (result $result)\n";
    sleep(5);

}

[download]

In reply to Re: Controlling Child Processes by zentara
in thread Controlling Child Processes by Anonymous Monk

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.