It's not getting executed...that's the problem. The script will not go anywhere until the $pid is killed. In this case, I have to do it externeally or by typing quit in the terminal. Anyone can emulate this if they've got a Unix-ish system. 
my $pid = open(DUMP, "top|") || die $!; # or 'prstat' will work

while ( <DUMP> ) {
    chomp;
    print "$_\n";
}

kill 9, $pid;

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I tried using IOC::Open2, assuming I can write "quit" (which will kill the program) but since script isn't going anywhere...

In reply to Re^4: more problems running a program that hogs the termnial by GaijinPunch
in thread more problems running a program that hogs the termnial by GaijinPunch

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