threaded_printer.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl
use threads;
use Thread::Queue;

my $TC      = 50;                  # Thread Count
my $q       = new Thread::Queue;
my $q_print = new Thread::Queue;

# Read all of the input work
while (<>) {
    chomp;
    $q->enqueue($_);
}

# Create the printer thread
my ($q_print_thread) = threads->create(print_work);

# Create the threads
my @threads = ();
for ( 1 .. $TC ) {
    my ($thread) = threads->create(thread_work);
    push( @threads, $thread );
    $q->enqueue( undef ); # Send a quit message to the thread
}

# Wait for the worker threads to finish
foreach my $thread (@threads) {
    $thread->join();
}

# Sent a undef to terminate the printer
$q_print->enqueue(undef);
$q_print_thread->join();

exit(0);

##############################################################################

sub thread_work {

    # Do some kind of per-thread initialization that 
    # is required in context of this thread

    # Pull work from the queue
    while ( my $line = $q->dequeue_nb ) {
        return if !$line;       # This tells us that there's no more work

        # Insert work here

        # Post results here
        $q_print->enqueue( "Some kind of results" );
    }
}

sub print_work {
    while ( my $line = $q_print->dequeue() ) {
        return if !$line;
        print "$line\n";
    }
}