Which OS are you running on? I ask because sometimes try to use fork/exec on Windows, and it doesn't do what they expect.

Assuming Linux/UNIX, then you could check the PID returned from wait, rather than just looking for -1, and track which child processes are ending, and what their exit code is ($?).

You do not show any error handling, maybe because it is only a code fragment, but if fork returns undef then it failed (usually because too many processes are running) and exec should not return, so the exit should be reporting an error ($!).

Then again, someone could be killing the parent, did you check its exit code?

Update: Opps! I did not read the title correctly, you are using Windows. fork creates a new thread on windows, and exec spawns a new process, so your exit is probably closing down the main process.

In reply to Re: Main program exits even before the child process completes on windows by cdarke
in thread Main program exits even before the child process completes on windows by vivekarcot

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