I am using the following code to run a series of processes at the same time. I have an 8 processer server, thus I limit the number of runs at one moment to 5, then start processes. The following code is fine, but it waits for all the 5 processes to finish in order to start the next 5. It would have been better if I start with 5 and replace the one which is finished immediately with a new one, thus have 5 processes running at same time always. Any ideas? Thanks Adam 
DATELOOP:
while ( ($currentdate <= $enddate) && ($item < 5) )
{
    $item++;
    pipe *{$item},RETHAND;
    unless ($pid = fork()) {    
        print "$command\n";
        system($command);
        print RETHAND "Completed $currentdate\n";
        exit();
     }
     $currentdate = nextdate($currentdate);
}

foreach $item2 (@waitlist) {     
         $response = <$item2>;  # received from $item
            print "$response\n";
            $item--;
}

if  ($currentdate <= $enddate) {goto DATELOOP;}

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In reply to forks for running multiple codes at same time by adamquestion

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