pipe($child_reader, $child_writer);
        binmode($child_reader, ":encoding(UTF-8)");
        binmode($child_writer, ":encoding(UTF-8)");
        $child_reader->autoflush(1);
        $child_writer->autoflush(1);

        # fork child
        my $pid = fork;
        if (!defined($pid)) {
            warn "Failed to fork child process - turning off --fork_writer";
            return;
        }

        if ($pid) {             # parent
            close $child_reader or warn "Parent: failed to close pipe reader - $!";
            return;
        } else {                # child
            close $child_writer or warn "Child: failed to close pipe writer - $!";
            child_writer();
            exit;
        }