http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=553965

spurperl has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello all,

I have a non-Tk script that opens an external program with Win32::Process and talks to it via sockets. When my script exits normally - during runtime (by either ending its run or with an explicit 'die' or 'exit') everything is fine. However, when the script is killed by the perl interpreter because of some runtime-discovered mistake (like trying to access @{$arr} when $arr turns out not to be an array reference), the child process keeps running after my scipt ends, which is very annoying.

How can I solve this problem ?

TIA

2006-06-07 Retitled by holli, as per Monastery guidelines
Original title: 'Children with Wi32::Process when dying'

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Children with Win32::Process when dying
by syphilis (Archbishop) on Jun 07, 2006 at 06:22 UTC
    Perhaps in the "non-Tk script" you can include an END{} block - something like:
    END{$obj->Kill($exitcode) if $obj->GetExitCode() == STILL_ACTIVE};
    For that to work you'll need to be using version 0.10 of Win32::Process and you'll need to load the module as:
    use Win32::Process (STILL_ACTIVE);
    Even with earlier versions of Win32::Process there's probably a way of doing it - assuming that the END{} block is the way to go - which I've not properly tested. In fact you might even find it sufficient to simply:
    END{$obj->Kill($exitcode)};
    which would work for earlier versions of Win32::Process, too.

    Also check the syntax of the GetExitCode() call (if you find you need to use it). The docs have it written as
    $ProcessObj->GetExitCode($exitcode);
    but supplying an argument doesn't smell right to me.

    Cheers,
    Rob
      The simple END {} cleanup helped. I wonder how it could have slipped from my mind :-)

      Thanks a lot