#! perl -slw use strict; my( %scripts, %deps, %sched, @starts ); while( ) { chomp; my( $name, $script, @deps ) = split '[ \t:,]+'; $scripts{ $name } = $script; if( @deps ) { $deps{ $name } = { map{ $_ => 1 } @deps }; push @{ $sched{ $_ } }, $name for @deps; } else { push @starts, $name; } } my %running = map{ system( 1, $scripts{ $_ } ) => $_ } @starts; while( keys %running ) { my $donePid = wait; my $done = delete $running{ $donePid } or next; for my $action ( @{ $sched{ $done } } ) { delete $deps{ $action }{ $done }; next if keys %{ $deps{ $action } }; $running{ system( 1, $scripts{ $action } ) } = $action; } } __DATA__ Action1: action1.pl Action1a: action1a.pl Action1 Action2: action2.pl Action2a: action2a.pl Action2 Action3: action3.pl Action1a, Action2a Action4: action4.pl Action3 Action5: action5.pl Action4 Action6: action6.pl Action5 Action7: action7.pl Action5 Action8: action8.pl Action6, Action7 Action9: action9.pl Action8 Action10: action10.pl Action1a, Action2a Action11: action11.pl Action8 #### [ 1:14:45.39] C:\test>980970 Action1 starting Action2 starting Action1 ending Action2 ending Action1a starting Action2a starting Action1a ending Action2a ending Action3 starting Action10 starting Action3 ending Action10 ending Action4 starting Action4 ending Action5 starting Action5 ending Action6 starting Action7 starting Action6 ending Action7 ending Action8 starting Action8 ending Action9 starting Action11 starting Action9 ending Action11 ending