Could be. Thinking about the client/server program again, I would probably use the Net::TCP::Server module to implement the server. Much easier.

use strict;
use warnings;
use Net::TCP::Server;

# create listener
my $lh = 'Net::TCP::Server'->new(8000) or die;

while (my $sh = $lh->accept) {
    defined(my $pid=fork) or die "fork: $!\n";
    if ($pid) {             # parent doesn't need client fh
        $sh->stopio;
        next;
    }
    
    # child doesn't need listener fh
    $lh->stopio;
    
    # do per-connection stuff here
    # read from the socket

    exit;
}
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