Problem with fork() and execute() in an ICE server

#include <Ice/Ice.h>
#include <MgsIceGui.h>

#include <fcntl.h>
#include <signal.h>

using namespace std;
using namespace programStarter;

class starterInterface : public Commander {
public:
/* Constructor */
starterInterface();
/* Destructor */
// virtual ~CommanderInterface();
/* Interface functions */
virtual void executeProcess(const string& commandLine, const Ice::Current&);
};

starterInterface::
starterInterface(void) {

}

void starterInterface::
executeProcess(const string& commandLine, const Ice::Current&) {

try {
//FROM ICE FAQ - How can I fork and exec an Ice process
//C++
//Set up a pipe so the child can report errors.
int fds[2];
if (pipe(fds) == -1) {
throw "cannot create pipe";
}

// Set clone-on-exec on write end of pipe.
int flags = fcntl(fds[1], F_GETFD);
if (flags == -1) {
throw "cannot get fcntl flags";
}
flags |= FD_CLOEXEC;
if (fcntl(fds[1], F_SETFD, flags) == -1) {
throw "cannot set clone-on-exec";
}

//If the parent uses signal handlers, block signal delivery here.

pid_t pid = fork();
switch(pid) {
case -1 : throw "cannot fork";
case 0 : {

cout << "child created" << endl;
//Child
//
//If the parent uses Ice::Application or IceUtil::CtrlCHandler,
//and the child requires the default behaviour for SIGHUP, SIGINT,
//and SIGTERM, reset these signals to the default behaviour here.

//Close all open file descriptors.

//int maxFd = static_cast<int>(sysconf(_SC_OPEN_MAX));
//for (int fd = 0; fd < maxFd; ++fd) {
// if(fd != fds[1]) {//Don't close write end of pipe
// close(fd);
// }
//}

execl("/usr/bin/ls","ls",(char *)0);

const char msg[] = "exec failed";
write(fds[1], msg, sizeof(msg)-1);
_exit(1);
}
default : {
//Parent
//
//Close the write end of the pipe
cout << "back in parent!" << endl;
close(fds[1]);

//Wait for child to write error message or exec succesfully
stringstream err;
char c;
while (read(fds[0], &c, 1) > 0) {
err << c;
}
close(fds[0]);
string msg = err.str();

//If the parent uses signal handlers,
//restore signal delivery here.
if (!msg.empty()) {
throw msg;
}
cout << "end of parent "<< endl;
}
}
}
catch(const char *msg) {
cerr << msg <<endl;
}

cout << "end of executeProcess" << endl;

}

int
main(void) {
Ice::CommunicatorPtr ic;
try {
ic = Ice::initialize();
Ice::ObjectAdapterPtr adapter = ic->createObjectAdapterWithEndpoints("ProgramStarterAdapter","default -p 10003");
Ice::ObjectPtr object = new starterInterface();
adapter->add(object, ic->stringToIdentity("ProgramStarter"));
adapter->activate();
ic->waitForShutdown();
}
catch (const Ice::Exception& e) {
cerr << e << endl;
}
catch (const char *msg) {
cerr << msg <<endl;
}
if (ic) {
try {
ic->destroy();
}
catch (const Ice::Exception& e) {
cerr << e << endl;
}
}
return 0;
}

back in parent!
child created
end of parent!
end of executeProcess
<and the output of "ls">

[pid 5229] write(1, <output of "ls">) = 204
[pid 5229] close(1) = 0
[pid 5229] munmap(0x7f80f5cd1000, 4096) = 0
[pid 5229] close(2) = 0
[pid 5229] exit_group(0) = ?
Process 5229 detached
[pid 5226] <... epoll_wait resumed> 6236d0, 4, 4294967295) = -1 EINTR (Interrupted system call)
[pid 5226] --- SIGCHLD (Child exited) @ 0 (0) ---
[pid 5226] clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, {1222756549, 393753500}) = 0
[pid 5226] close(9) = 0
[pid 5226] clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, {1222756549, 393930402}) = 0
[pid 5226] munmap(0x7f75bb096000, 524296192) = 0
[pid 5226] close(8) = 0
[pid 5226] exit_group(0) = ?
Process 5226 detached
[pid 5224] <... futex resumed> ) = ? ERESTARTSYS (To be restarted)
[pid 5225] <... futex resumed> ) = ? ERESTART_RESTARTBLOCK (To be restarted)