You can also write a separate daemon, the daemon being for the long taking process. The daemon just sits and waits for a signal (ipc, semaphore, file, socket, etc.) from the CGI. The daemon can be written to properly restart and control its' use of resources. The daemon can then either fork & exec the 3 hour process and wait for more signals OR it can wait to finish before another 3 hour process is allowed to run. Chris