The Proc::Reliable is intended to be a method for simple, reliable and configurable subprocess execution in PERL. It includes all the functionality of the backticks operator and system() functions, plus many uses of fork/exec, open2() and open3(). Proc::Reliable incorporates a number of options, including sending data to the subprocess on STDIN, collecting STDOUT and STDERR separately or together, killing hung processes, timouts and automatic retries. WWW: http://search.cpan.org/dist/Proc-Reliable/ Seamus Venasse