DAEMON(8)

NAME

     daemon -- run detached from the controlling terminal

SYNOPSIS

     daemon [-cf] [-p pidfile] command arguments ...

DESCRIPTION

     The daemon utility detaches itself from the controlling terminal and exe-
     cutes the program specified by its arguments.

     The options are as follows:

     -c      Change the current working directory to the root (``/'').

     -f      Redirect standard input, standard output and standard error to
	     /dev/null.

     -p file
	     Write the ID of the created process into the file.  Note, that
	     the file will be created shortly before the process is actually
	     executed, and will remain after the process exits (although it
	     will be removed if the execution fails).

DIAGNOSTICS

     The daemon utility exits 1 if an error is returned by the daemon(3)
     library routine, 2 if the pidfile is requested, but cannot be opened,
     otherwise 0.  If the command cannot be executed, an error message is dis-
     played on standard error unless the -f flag is specified.

SEE ALSO

     daemon(3), exec(3), termios(4), tty(4)

HISTORY

     The daemon utility first appeared in FreeBSD 4.7.