What you should expect using this method is blocking while the exec runs which could run you out of child processes while they complete. I'd also expect to see an "unusual amount of CPU activity" which will be the result of the forked shells being created and destroyed. All of that being said, yes it works. It's architecturally overly simple and very inefficient. If your load is tiny, it might be ok. Anything moderate like Henning and others have said, will use an inordinate amount of cpu. I would not personally risk it.