title: Daemonizing a PHP script without pcntl_fork()
body: <p>I'm working on an embedded system that is programmed with PHP 4.4.9 - unfortunately without the PCNTL extension.</p>
  
  <p>I need to create a script that runs in the background as a daemon. You'd usually do this using <code>fork()</code>, or in the PHP case, <code>pcntl_fork()</code> - but this function is not available. A shell is also missing, so I can't use the standard tools.</p>
  
  <p>So, what other ways are there to cleanly start a process in the background?</p>