> That depends on what you put between the back-ticks.
>
> This:
>
> `command > /dev/null &`
>
> will almost certainly fork. There are any number of forking contingencies,
> depending on what you try to run, and how.

well, that's probably it. the command I'm using is a very long,
involved command to a complex utility that handles media files, and
apparently takes an infinite number of command-line arguments, but the
final args are "2>&1". I inherited this code, as I understand it that
just pipes standard error and standard out to the same place --
however, now I think that might be what's going wrong.

-- 
Giles Bowkett
http://www.gilesgoatboy.org