Problem with broken pipe

Hi All,
I have a script written by someone else and I am still learning perl.  What the script does is monitor ftp uploads through a pipe and then processes them.  The problem is, something is causing the pipe to break and the script then stops.  How do I get the script to recover and continue processing.  Below is a portion of the system log that shows what is happening when it breaks and a portion of the code.  I would also like to know how I can get it to process only a few files at a time.  If there is a really fast upload connection and a lot of files I get a lot of processes running that bog down the system.  I would prefer to be able to put a limit on the number files being processed at one time before processing the rest.

I am putting this at 500 because I need this fixed soon and it is over my head.
Thanks


Jun 15 13:01:37 x ftpd[11453]: xferlog (recv): 1 64.25.14.122 1063001 /Users/ftpuser/17298/af_1377.JPG b _ i r ftpuser ftp 0 * c
Jun 15 13:01:38 x ftpd[11453]: xferlog (recv): 1 64.25.14.122 859339 /Users/ftpuser/17298/ag_1435.JPG b _ i r ftpuser ftp 0 * c
Jun 15 13:01:39 x ftpd[11453]: xferlog (recv): 1 64.25.14.122 1104033 /Users/ftpuser/17298/ah_1378.JPG b _ i r ftpuser ftp 0 * c
Jun 15 13:01:41 x ftpd[11453]: xferlog (recv): 1 64.25.14.122 1122386 /Users/ftpuser/17298/ai_1382.JPG b _ i r ftpuser ftp 0 * c
Jun 15 13:01:42 x ftpd[11453]: xferlog (recv): 1 64.25.14.122 1055950 /Users/ftpuser/17298/aj_1380.JPG b _ i r ftpuser ftp 0 * c
Jun 15 13:01:43 x kernel: AppleBCM5701Ethernet:        0        1 timeoutOccurred - FCS errors noted, resetting
Jun 15 13:01:43 x syslogd: /var/log/online: Broken pipe
Jun 15 13:01:43 x /usr/sbin/AppleFileServer: AFPServer::AbnormalATListenerShutDown - clear listener
Jun 15 13:01:47 x kernel: AppleBCM5701Ethernet:        0        4 setupCopperPhy - link is down
Jun 15 13:01:50 x kernel: AppleBCM5701Ethernet - en0 link active, 1000-Mbit, full duplex, flow control enabled
Jun 15 13:01:51 x ftpd[11453]: xferlog (recv): 1 64.25.14.122 974607 /Users/ftpuser/17298/ak_1386.JPG b _ i r ftpuser ftp 0 * c
Jun 15 13:01:53 x ftpd[11453]: xferlog (recv): 2 64.25.14.122 1073889 /Users/ftpuser/17298/al_1375.JPG b _ i r ftpuser ftp 0 * c


Script:

if ( open(PID, '/var/run/syslog.pid') && <PID> =~ /^(\d+)$/ && kill(0, $1) ) {
      my $pid = $1;

      close(PID);

      system("kill -9 $pid");

      system("cd / ; /usr/sbin/syslogd >/dev/null 2>/dev/null </dev/null &");
}

$SIG{'CHLD'} = 'IGNORE';

while (1) {
      open(FIFO, "< /var/log/online") || warn $!;
      my $log_line = <FIFO>;
      close(FIFO);

      next unless defined $log_line && $log_line =~ 'xferlog';

      print $log_line;

      my ($m, $d, $t, $h, $p, $x, $r,
            $seconds, $ip, $size, $file, $type, $u,
            $action, $direction, $user,
            $service, $auth, $a, $complete) = split(/\s+/, $log_line);

      next if !$file;

      &handle_image($file) if $user eq $username && -e $file;