Thanks for the prompt replies: This is my daemon code.

use strict;
use POSIX qw(setsid);

chdir '/' or die "Can't chdir to /:$!";
open STDIN, '/dev/null' or die "Can't read /dev/null:$!";
open STDOUT, '>>/dev/null' or die "Can't write to /dev/null:$!";
open STDERR, '>>/dev/null' or die "Can't write to /dev/null:$!";
defined(my $pid = fork) or die "Can't fork:$!";
setsid or die "Can't start a new session:$!";
umask 0;

# this point on its a polling program. Didn't copy it entirely.

while (1) {

my (@lines, @fields, @bytes, $mysecond1, $mysecond2, @throughput, @ban
+dwidth);

@lines = `/sbin/ifconfig eth0` or die("$!\n");
@fields = split(/\s+/, $lines[6]);
$fields[6] =~ /(([^:]*):?){2}/;
$bytes[0] = $2;
$fields[2] =~ /(([^:]*):?){2}/;
$bytes[2] = $2;
$mysecond1 = time;

sleep 15;

@lines = `/sbin/ifconfig eth0` or die("$!\n");
@fields = split(/\s+/, $lines[6]);
$fields[6] =~ /(([^:]*):?){2}/;
$bytes[1] = $2;
$fields[2] =~ /(([^:]*):?){2}/;
$bytes[3] = $2;
$mysecond2 = time;
[download]

I did try to turn my daemon to a socket just now but I hit a snag. The server code used the accept(COMM_SOCKET,SOCKET) function in a continuous while loop. This function causes the server to wait for a connection and stops the script at this point.

But at the same time, I want the daemon to continue to do the polling routine. Note also that the routine has a sleep function inside. It works like this. The program polls the number of bytes at a certain time. Then, I sleep it for lets say 15 seconds. Then, I poll the number of bytes again. Then, I compute the difference. This is supposed to run continuously in the background. When I want to retrieve the data, my main script will ask for the data. So, the idea would be to send it over a socket connection with the daemon being the server and the main script the client.

But, how do I get the daemon to continuously listen for a connection and at the same time run the polling routine that has a sleep function? Do I alter the server code or the polling routine code?

Thanks.

Edit by dws to rescue the formatting