Hm, maybe. What version of Perl / IPC::Open3? What platform?  I can't reproduce the problem here (5.8.8 / 1.0106, Linux), so we'll have to wait until someone else can...

You have changed waitpid($pid2,0) too, have you? (which is what I implied, but didn't explicitly say)  (the problem with WNOHANG is that the process might not yet have terminated at that point, so you wouldn't get a valid return code).

(SunOS calcium 5.8 Generic_108528-23 sun4u sparc SUNW,UltraAX-i2///This is perl, version 5.005_03 built for sun4-solaris) Yes I have changed the code as You said...

#!/usr/bin/perl

use IPC::Open3;
use POSIX qw( :sys_wait_h );

my $pid;
my $cmd = "new.pl";
my $cmd2 = "new2.pl";
my $exit_code = 0;
my $exit_code2 = 0;
my $help = 0;
my $help2 = 0;

print "\n*******SPAWNING FIRST PROCESS**********\n";
$pid = open3(*MMRET_IN, *MMRET_OUT, *MMRET_ERR, $cmd);
print "Process spawned with PID = $pid \n";
$help = waitpid($pid,0);
print "HELP_VALUE is $help\n";
$exit_code = $? >> 8;
print "ExitCODE is $exit_code \n";
print "Return_Value \$\? = $? \n";

print "\n*******SPAWNING SECOND PROCESS********\n";
$pid2 = open3(*MMRET_IN2, *MMRET_OUT2, *MMRET_ERR2, $cmd2);
print "Process spawned with PID = $pid2 \n";
$help2 = waitpid($pid2,0);
print "HELP_VALUE is $help2\n";
$exit_code2 = $? >> 8;
print "ExitCODE is $exit_code2 \n";
print "Return_Value \$\? = $? \n";
print "********************************\n\n";
[download]

Yes, I have cahnged it as you suggested... Btw... SunOS 5.8 Generic_108528-23 sun4u sparc SUNW,UltraAX-i2 /// This is perl, version 5.005_03 built for sun4-solaris

#!/usr/bin/perl

use IPC::Open3;
use POSIX qw( :sys_wait_h );

my $pid;
my $cmd = "new.pl";
my $cmd2 = "new2.pl";
my $exit_code = 0;
my $exit_code2 = 0;
my $help = 0;
my $help2 = 0;

$pid = open3(*MMRET_IN, *MMRET_OUT, *MMRET_ERR, $cmd);
print "Process spawned with PID = $pid \n";
$help = waitpid($pid,0);
print "HELP_VALUE is $help\n";
$exit_code = $? >> 8;
print "ExitCODE is $exit_code \n";

$pid2 = open3(*MMRET_IN2, *MMRET_OUT2, *MMRET_ERR2, $cmd2);
print "Process spawned with PID = $pid2 \n";
$help2 = waitpid($pid2,0);
print "HELP_VALUE is $help2\n";
$exit_code2 = $? >> 8;
print "ExitCODE is $exit_code2 \n";
[download]

Dunno...

Hm, I don't have the problem on Solaris either... Tried it with

SunOS solaris8 5.8 Generic_117350-20 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Blade-2500
SunOS solaris10 5.10 Generic sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Blade-2500
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and Perl versions 5.8.8 ("ActivePerl"), 5.8.4 (self-built), and on Solaris 8 even with 5.005_03 (system-supplied). No problems...   Weird.

#!/usr/bin/perl

my $i =0;
while($i<=1000000){
  if($i == 800){
    exit 2;    
  }
  $i++;
}
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#!/usr/bin/perl

my $i =0;
while($i<=1000000){
  if($i == 900){
    exit 1;    
  }
  $i++;
}
[download]