/usr/local/sbin/relaydelay.pl $CONFIG 2>&1 > /var/log/relaydelay.log & That should be /usr/local/sbin/relaydelay.pl $CONFIG > /var/log/relaydelay.log 2>&1 & And yes, that should give you a reasonable approximation of running as a daemon, although there are things like it's still part of a process group, so will still get HUP signals from its controlling tty etc.

Dave.