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