This post is actually in reply to both previous comments (merlyn's and graff's).

There is nothing quite like posting your code to an open forum to make you write better code...  :)    Thank you for your comments.

The o in m//o was something I pulled from Programming Perl, 3^rd edition.  It is supposed to give a hint to the regexp compiler that the regexp only needs to be compiled once.  I suppose the same thing could be achieved with qr//.  Also, good catch on blindly using $1.

I can see how, in a general purpose setting, -9ing a process would be a Very Bad Thing.  This is the first thing on the bug list.  As for systeming out for kill instead of using the built-in, does the built-in allow you access to the error codes?  Also, because the code was already system dependent (ps -eaf), I figured why not add some more (sort of like using $& and friends in a regexp).  The world in which I work/play/code consists of Solaris, Irix, and Fedora Core 2.  So within my admittedly small world, the code works.

I will be updating the above code over the next day or two (as time permits) to fix your observations of what is wrong.  BTW, does anyone know where there is a list of all the strings $^O could contain?

the regexp only needs to be compiled once

You gotta read the rest of the text right around there. I'd quote it, but I don't have my camel with me (I'm on a trip). But the perlop manpage says:

               PATTERN may contain variables, which will be interpolat
+ed (and
               the pattern recompiled) every time the pattern search i
+s evalu-
               ated, except for when the delimiter is a single quote. 
+ (Note
               that $(, $), and $| are not interpolated because they l
+ook like
               end-of-string tests.)  If you want such a pattern to be
+ com-
               piled only once, add a "/o" after the trailing delimite
+r.  This
               avoids expensive run-time recompilations, and is useful
+ when
               the value you are interpolating won't change over the l
+ife of
               the script.  However, mentioning "/o" constitutes a pro
+mise
               that you won't change the variables in the pattern.  If
+ you
               change them, Perl won't even notice.  See also
               "qr/STRING/imosx".
[download]

Thus, /o is useful only when there are variables in the pattern. And you had no patterns with variables!

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

Doh!

I just looked /o up in my camel book.  For future reference, the text in question is on pg. 148.