please note, if you using configure option --enable-sigchild(Enable PHP's own SIGCHLD handler) when complie php(under linux 2.6.18-53.1.13.el5.centos.plus and php 5.2.5 as I know), pcntl_waitpid and pcntl_wait in php script would never return the child pid, because the build in handle get it first.

<?php
$childs = array();

// Fork some process.
for($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {
    $pid = pcntl_fork();
    if($pid == -1)
        die('Could not fork');

    if ($pid) {
        echo "parent \n";
        $childs[] = $pid;
    } else {
        // Sleep $i+1 (s). The child process can get this parameters($i).
        sleep($i+1);
        
        // The child process needed to end the loop.
        exit();
    }
}

while(count($childs) > 0) {
    foreach($childs as $key => $pid) {
        $res = pcntl_waitpid($pid, $status, WNOHANG);
        
        // If the process has already exited
        if($res == -1 || $res > 0)
            unset($childs[$key]);
    }
    
    sleep(1);
}
?>

<?php

declare(ticks = 1);
function zp_handler($signal) {
    $id = pcntl_waitpid(-1, $status, WNOHANG);
    if (pcntl_wifexited($status)) 
    {
        printf("Removed Chlid id: %d \n",$id);
        printf("Chlid status: %d \n",pcntl_wexitstatus($status));
    }
}

//pcntl_signal_dispatch();
pcntl_signal(SIGCHLD, "zp_handler");
//pcntl_signal_dispatch();
//

$pid = pcntl_fork();
if ($pid == 0)
{
    print "#1 Hi, I'm child process".PHP_EOL;
    sleep(3);
    return 10;
}
else 
{
    print "#1parent process id:".$pid.PHP_EOL;
    $pid = pcntl_fork();
    if ($pid == 0)
    {   print "#2 Hi, I'm child process".PHP_EOL;
        sleep(10);
        exit(20);
    } 
    else 
    {
        print "#2parent process id:".$pid.PHP_EOL;
        for ($i=0; $i <10 ; $i++) { 
            print "wait..".PHP_EOL;
            sleep(10);
        }
    }
}
?>