Perl - Logging to terminal from a long running system call -

i calling external program perl code using backticks

print `<some long running program>` 

the long running program prints detailed log messages onto standard output. problem i'm having due buffering, output long running program printed @ once after has finished execution. tried making stdout filehandle "hot" did not help.

is there anyway can have program print continuously onto screen?

open exec pipe rather using backticks.

open ( $prog_stdout, "-|", "/your/program" ) or die $!; 

this fork , exec give access $prog_stdout things with.

e.g.

while ( <$prog_stdout> ) {      print; } 

(it'll close if external program exits, while terminate).

you may want include autoflushing of filehandle. http://perldoc.perl.org/io/handle.html

but may not necessary, output won't buffered indefinitely.