Hi,

You could use a do{}while instead, and code it all in a more perlish way, but that a style/efficiency thing, the important thing I see here, is that you shouldn't use things like this: `ps -ef | grep $pid.log`; because this is unsafe. Allways use absolute path for your external commands.

Take a look at:
http://www.mclibrary.edu.mn/itbooks/CD2/howto/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/index.html
perlsec

Regards,