Thanks for your reply. Actually, They are done printing all they have to. "Done! pid = 0" is the last statement before exit(0) for the child. I'm not sure.. what is stoping from exiting Parent forked child # ===> 0, pid = 6382 Parent forked child # ===> 1, pid = 6383 Parent forked child # ===> 2, pid = 6384 started all children 2 Argument "CHLD" isn't numeric in subroutine entry at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/i386-linux/POSIX.pm line 38. Child 0 in sched This is Msg1 Done! pid = 0 Argument "CHLD" isn't numeric in subroutine entry at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/i386-linux/POSIX.pm line 38. Argument "CHLD" isn't numeric in subroutine entry at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/i386-linux/POSIX.pm line 38. Child 0 in sched This is Msg3 Done! pid = 0 Child 0 in sched This is Msg2 Done! pid = 0 Argument "CHLD" isn't numeric in subroutine entry at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/i386-linux/POSIX.pm line 38. Process 6384 exited When I do ps -ef, I can see the parent and 2 of its children hanging. Not sure what to make of that. /opt/jyo/ > ps -ef | grep perl root 6381 4559 98 15:15 pts/0 00:11:56 perl jfork.pl root 6382 6381 0 15:15 pts/0 00:00:00 perl <defunct> root 6383 6381 0 15:15 pts/0 00:00:00 perl <defunct>