title: unix-fork-monitor-child-progress
body: <p>I have an application where a bit of parallel processing would be of benefit. For the purposes of the discussion, let's say there is a directory with 10 text files in it, and I want to start a program, that forks off 10 processes, each taking one of the files, and uppercasing the contents of the file.  I acknowledge that the parent program can wait for the children to complete using one of the <strong>wait</strong> functions, or using the <strong>select</strong> function.   </p>
  
  <p>What I would like to do is have the parent process monitor the progress of each forked process, and display something like a progress bar as the processes run.</p>
  
  <p>My Question.</p>
  
  <p>What would be a reasonable alternatives do I have for the forked processes to communicate this information back to the parent?   What IPC techniques would be reasonable to use?</p>