I'm developing a script that will retrieve log files via a raptor (firewall) specific application called 'remotelogfile'.

Goal:
Fork a predetermined amount of child processes, each using the remotelogfile utility for simultaneous collection. The next child process must wait to be spawned until the number of child processes goes below the predetermined amount of children.

Caveat:
I can't do a collection of all firewalls listed in my array at the same time, i.e. - the wait.

Questions:
One - how can I make the script wait until all child processes have finished, before exiting?
Two - should I be decrementing the $counter every time a loop completes
Three - is there a better way to go about doing this?

Here's a perlmonks friendly version of what I have so far...

my($num_procs)='3';
my($counter)='0';
foreach my $fw qw(fw1 fw2 fw3 fw4 fw5){
  $counter++;
  if($counter <= $num_procs){
    &do_stuff($fw);
  }
  else{
    wait;
    &do_stuff($fw);
  }
}

sub do_stuff{
  my($fw)=shift;
  local $SIG{CHLD}='IGNORE';
  defined(my $pid=fork) || die "Can not fork!";
    exec "remotelogfile $fw logfile > /var/$fw.log" if(!$pid);
}
[download]

Any help would be most appreciated.

cheers!
-Ev