continuous log backup to disk (ontape -c) ... again

I am wanting to run continuous log backups to disk and have been successful in laying out the initital strategy; . full backup (ontape -s -L 0) nightly . then start a script to the log backup in the background; ontape -c <<EOF >ontape.c.log ^M EOF. kill the ontape -c script before running the next backup. . backup the log file (LTAPEDEV). (move or rename or delete, then touch a new one). . restart script (ontape -c) in background. This works fine EXCEPT when the LTAPESIZE is reached by the background ontape -c process.Since this process is running unattended in the background (we passed the RETURN ^M character to initiate), the next prompt to mount a new LTAPEDEV (in this case a filename), spins out of control, filling the ontape.c.log logfile. (I use the output in this logfile to get the log file numbers which were backed up). If the size of LTAPEDEV is reached before the process is killed prior to the nightly backup, the scripts loops, asking for a new file, eventually filling up disk space. I know you are going to suggest making LTAPEDEV large enough to hold all the logs for the day. Well, 2gb is the limit and sometimes we reach that. So, I want it to wait until I back it up and touch a new one. I don't want it to keep asking for a new file. Why does it think I've entered a return to the prompt, when I only passed one return character to the ontape -c command? any ideas on solving this one? thanks, Glenn Travis Sr. DBA Circuit City / Divx Informix 7.23uc9 Sun solaris 2.5