Executed a perl script in the background like this:
perl scriptname.pl $otherParams 2> /dev/null 1> /dev/null

Perl script forks and parent dies, so PHP "should" see the script as finished
immediately, perl child does work in background (takes a few minutes to run).

PHP script that spawned perl script completes OK, browser stops waiting for more data from
php script as it should.

However, when using the same browser window (or one from browser's file->new window) no
other pages that referrence the session will load in the browser.  If we force the session
to destroy just after the system() call, other scripts load just fine.  Also, other
scripts work just fine if we start a new browser from scratch (creates new session).

So it appears that the PHP session is getting messed up somehow b/c of the background
system/exec/`` call.  This seems to prevent the following pages from loading the session
properly and therefore they will not run.


One other thing, once the child perl script is finally complete everything starts working again, i.e.-the session is OK again.  

Your perl scripts inherits the open file descriptors and hence also the open fd for the session file. And hence, the lock associated with the fd is not automatically released, when PHP closes the fd.

You might want to close all fds upon startup of the perl script to prevent this scenario. 

Your perl scripts inherits the open file descriptors and hence also the open fd for the session file. And hence, the lock associated with the fd is not automatically released, when PHP closes the fd.

You might want to close all fds upon startup of the perl script to prevent this scenario.