I haven't tried this under Win32, but it is great under OS's that support it. You can try doing something like the following -- doesn't require any other files and it shows up on ps reports 
#!/usr/bin/perl

exit if fork;
my $dollar_0 = $0;

$0 = "$dollar_0 (first)";
sleep(4);

$0 = "$dollar_0 (second)";
sleep(4);

$0 = "$dollar_0 (third)";
sleep(4);

[download]
Try doing a ps and grep for the process while it is running, you should see it there nicely with its current status.

In reply to Re: perl program status by Rhandom
in thread perl program status by Jamnet

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