Note: I am a Perl newbie with about 10 days of experience in the language. Translation: "I'm dumb. Don't make me cry too much."

I'm presently writing a command line interface for a script. I want to be able to start and stop a second process from the first. I have been unable to figure out a solution that works for my specific situation. Here's what I've tried so far:

Option#1:

system("start ANYFILE.pl");

This allows me to fire off the second Perl script in the background, but I am unable to figure out a way to maintain some kind of reference to the process through which I can kill it.

Option #2:

$PID = fork();

This would allow me to keep a handle on the process if I were able to figure out how to use it to fire off the second Perl script.

Option #3:
Win32::Process::Create( my $ProcessObj,
 "c:\\dir1\\dir2\\ANYFILE.pl", 0,
 0, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, ".") 
 || die "Create process $!";

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This would be a great solution, since it allows me to keep a handle on the process. The problem is I am unable to figure out how to launch a Perl script using it. Apparently, even though I have my extensions correct I cannot "execute" a Perl script.

I would appreciate help getting any of these solutions to work, a solution other than these which would solve my problem, and even explainations as to why one or more of these solutions wouldn't work. It's always a plus to learn what you did wrong and why it's wrong!

-Mikeo

BTW, the script is being developed on a Windows box for use on Windows boxes.

In reply to Running a Perl script in the background from another Perl script by mikeo

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