If you run a script in a the background with exec, things go nasty after a while when you kill your terminal. You can prevent this (I tried it only under linux) by setting SIG{INT}='IGNORE'.

Actually, a better solution is the Proc::daemon module, or the Net::daemon module if you need to claim a socket.

Try this...

    close STDIN; close STDOUT; close STDERR;

        if (open(DEVTTY, "/dev/tty")) {
            ioctl(DEVTTY,0x20007471,0);
            close DEVTTY;
        }

        open(STDIN,"</dev/null");
        open(STDOUT,">/dev/null");
        open(STDERR,">&STDOUT");

        # at this point there are two processes... for parent, fork wi
+ll return a 'true' number, 
        # for child it'll return 0. thus, parent will exit and child w
+ill remain to run.
        fork && exit; 
    # certain signals should be ignored
        $SIG{"HUP"} = $SIG{"ALRM"} = $SIG{"PIPE"} = $SIG{"INT"} = "IGN
+ORE"; 
    # set some priority for the process...
    # (so that it doesn't end up wasting your
    #  server resources)
        setpriority( "PRIO_PROCESS", 0, 10 );
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