This is only for perl running under unix and unix-like systems. has anyone written a wrapper for system that works for background processes and returns a pid, so that this pid can be checked (via another wrapper)? 
   my $pid = system_bg("cd /tmp ; sleep 50");
   # do other stuff
   while (still_alive($pid)) {
      print STDERR "you are so lucky, your pid is still there\n";
   }
   print STDERR "ok, your pid has now finished\n";
preferably, this would work on most unix systems. I know that I can fork/exec, but this seems painful. has someone written such a module? help appreciated. sincerely, /iaw

In reply to background system() and stillalive() sub by iaw4

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