I am writing a Perl script on Redhat Enterprise Linux 3. This script
is intended to be run at start-up, and as such I have modified one of
the scripts in /etc/init.d to start this script. This implies that the
Perl script "daemonizes" itself, that is, it does the usual:

$pid = fork ;
exit if $pid ;
use POSIX ;
POSIX::setsid() ;

I then do another fork so that the child of the parent can do some
work. In particular, this child makes a call to a Linux command of the
form

`/bin/grep string /var/spool/lpd/lpr1/filename`

It is at this line that the child dies. However, if I run the script
without invoking the /etc/init.d script, the child does not die. Thus,
there is something in the way the /etc/init.d script calls the perl
script that makes things go bad (perhaps the "daemon" function).

In all cases everything is running as root. 

For a satisfactory answer I need to know how to fix the perl script so
that it does not die at the backtick commands. Note that at several
places I do different sorts of backtick commands, some of which cannot
be replaced by Perl code.

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Request for Question Clarification by studboy-ga on 04 Jul 2005 19:15 PDT

Hi rlandfill-ga

Have you tried the system() approach?  ie

system("/bin/grep string /var/spool/lpd/lpr1/filename");

Thanks
studboy-ga

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Clarification of Question by rlandfill-ga on 04 Jul 2005 20:13 PDT

I need the string returned by the command call. system() only returns an exit code.