use File::Spec;
 my $devnul = File::Spec->devnull();
print $reply_to_user;
die "cannot fork: $!" unless defined ( my $pid = fork() );
if ( $pid ) { #this is the parent.
        exit;
    } else { #this is the child
open STDOUT, ">$devnul"  or die "Can't write to nowhere: $!";
open STDERR, ">$devnul"  or die "Can't write to nowhere: $!";
        sleep( 10 );
        #do stuff
}