If SAFE_MODE is on, and you are trying to run a script in the background by appending "> /dev/null 2> /dev/null & echo $!" to the command line, the browser will hang until the script is done.
My solution:
Create a shell script (ex. runscript.sh) which contains the execution line for the script you are trying to run in the background.
The runscript.sh is run by an exec() call without the redirect string, which is now placed in the runscript.sh.
runscript.sh will return almost immediately because output of the original script is redirected, and so will not hang your browser and the script runs fine in the background.
