NAME
   Parallel::Prefork - A simple prefork server framework

SYNOPSIS
     use Parallel::Prefork;

     my $pm = Parallel::Prefork->new({
       max_workers  => 10,
       trap_signals => {
         TERM => 'TERM',
         HUP  => 'TERM',
         USR1 => undef,
       }
     });

     while ($pm->signal_received ne 'TERM') {
       load_config();
       $pm->start(sub {
           ... do some work within the child process ...
       });
     }

     $pm->wait_all_children();

DESCRIPTION
   "Parallel::Prefork" is much like "Parallel::ForkManager", but supports
   graceful shutdown and run-time reconfiguration.

METHODS
 new
   instantiation. Takes a hashref as an argument. Recognized attributes are
   as follows.

  max_workers
   number of worker processes (default: 10)

  spawn_interval
   interval in seconds between spawning child processes unless a child
   process exits abnormally (default: 0)

  err_respawn_interval
   number of seconds to deter spawning of child processes after a worker
   exits abnormally (default: 1)

  trap_signals
   hashref of signals to be trapped. Manager process will trap the signals
   listed in the keys of the hash, and send the signal specified in the
   associated value (if any) to all worker processes. If the associated
   value is a scalar then it is treated as the name of the signal to be
   sent immediately to all the worker processes. If the value is an
   arrayref the first value is treated the name of the signal and the
   second value is treated as the interval (in seconds) between sending the
   signal to each worker process.

  on_child_reap
   coderef that is called when a child is reaped. Receives the instance to
   the current Parallel::Prefork, the child's pid, and its exit status.

  before_fork
  after_fork
   coderefs that are called in the manager process before and after fork,
   if being set

 start
   The main routine. There are two ways to use the function.

   If given a subref as an argument, forks child processes and executes
   that subref within the child processes. The processes will exit with 0
   status when the subref returns.

   The other way is to not give any arguments to the function. The function
   returns undef in child processes. Caller should execute the application
   logic and then call "finish" to terminate the process.

   The "start" function returns true within manager process upon receiving
   a signal specified in the "trap_signals" hashref.

 finish
   Child processes (when executed by a zero-argument call to "start")
   should call this function for termination. Takes exit code as an
   optional argument. Only usable from child processes.

 signal_all_children
   Sends signal to all worker processes. Only usable from manager process.

 wait_all_children()
 wait_all_children($timeout)
   Waits until all worker processes exit or timeout (given as an optional
   argument in seconds) exceeds. The method returns the number of the
   worker processes still running.

AUTHOR
   Kazuho Oku

LICENSE
   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
   under the same terms as Perl itself.

   See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html