I read your message too fast the first time, it appears that you still have it spawned by a shell with no shell redirection characters. 23330 ? S 2:11 /sbin/syslog-ng 23331 ? S 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/swatch --script-dir=/root --read-pipe=cat /dev 23346 ? S 0:31 | \_ perl /root/.swatch_script.23331 23370 ? S 0:02 | \_ cat /dev/fd/0 23334 ? S 3:24 \_ /usr/bin/perl -w /usr/local/sbin/sec.pl -input=- -conf=/usr/local/etc I don't have a shell starting sec on linux. Maybe it's perl on solaris doing this. I can't say. -- Nate "Guide to understanding a net.addict's day: Slow day: didn't have much to do, so spent three hours on usenet. Busy day: managed to work in three hours of usenet. Bad day: barely squeezed in three hours of usenet." - Unknown