daemonize.py

# This is a condensed snippet of making a python daemon manually.
# grizzled and python-daemon were simply not working as easily as
# I would expect, while this little bit of code works just fine.
# Assumes you've already used an OptionParser instance to get 
# some info but that's easily modified.

if options.daemon:
    # Fork once
    pid = os.fork()
    if pid > 0:
        sys.stdout.write("Forking daemon process\n")
        sys.exit(0)
    # end if

    os.setsid()
    os.umask(0)

    # Fork twice, and now we're zombie proof
    pid = os.fork()
    if pid > 0:
        # write out daemon pid
        pidfile = open(options.pidfilename, 'w')
        pidfile.write(str(pid))
        pidfile.close()
        sys.exit(0)
    # end if
# end if

# From here on out the code is executing in the daemon process
# if options.daemon was True.
logging.info("hello from your little daemon")