Background processes inside the database.

I am looking for a way to have a session spawn a background process and release. The user needs to be able to start a job which could conceivably take days (don't ask what the job is, as I have customers reading this froup and I do not want them to realise how messed up their database is). The user's session must, therefore disconnect before the job is completed, and no network connection can be expected to maintain a connexion that long, so the app cannot just spawn another app to run the job. On the OS, it is fairly easy to have one executable start a second that runs in the background and not wait for the second to complete. So, I can have an SPL procedure which makes a system call to the first and more or less achieve my goal. This is our only option in IDS 7, at least as far as I can make out, but system calls are a pain. I would hope a more elegant solution exists through UDR's, but I have not found one. The mi_tab_execute_on_background() call was suggested, but I can get no documentation on this. Does anyone have any advice, information, or suggestions? Sincerely (His and hers), Topher B| Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of SPL system calls?