ok, I I added what you requested. However it still will continue the program and finish. I can pull up process on my linux and it shows the two instances of the chirp_md5sum program running.

$index=0;

my $inputfile="perloutput";
my $endfile=".txt ";
my $smb="> ";
my $outputfile="output";
my $smb2="&";

while ($index<2)
{
   my $testpath="chirp_md5sum ";
   $testpath=$testpath.$inputfile.$index.$endfile.$smb.$outputfile.$in
+dex.$endfile.$smb2;
   chomp $testpath;
   print ("$testpath \n");

   $id=fork();

   if ($id == 0) {
    exec($testpath) or die "unable to exec $testpath: $!\n";

  }

 $index++;
}

while (wait > -1) {};
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