#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use POSIX ":sys_wait_h";
$|++; # flush buffers
my @dirs = qw ( dir1 dir2 dir3 dir4 dir5 );
my @pids;

for my $dir (@dirs) {
    my $pid = fork();
    die "Fork failed" unless defined $pid;
    push @pids, $pid;
    next if $pid;  # parent returns to loop
    # child starts here
    do_dir($dir);
    exit; # kill child here after it has done work
}

print "Child pids are:\n";
print "$_\n" for @pids;

# wait for all kids to finish
my $kids;
do{
    $kids = waitpid(-1, &WNOHANG);
}until $kids == -1;
print "My children are all dead!\n";
print "My life is not worth living....\n";
die "I can go on no longer\nGoodbye cruel CPU\n";

sub do_dir {
    my $dirname = shift;
    # do dir stuff
    # we will exit on return
    sleep ( 2+ rand 5); # simulate processing
    print "Processed $dirname\n";
}