diff --git a/hbc b/hbc
index 54f1882..9251852 100755
--- a/hbc
+++ b/hbc
@@ -34,6 +34,16 @@ except:
 """
 	sys.exit(1)
 
+
+# N.B. daemon tries to close resource.RLIMIT_NOFILE file descriptors
+# 	 	which on FreeBSD in close to a million
+#		hack:  replace the function in daemon with ths one:
+
+def get_maximum_file_descriptors():
+	return 2048
+
+daemon.get_maximum_file_descriptors = get_maximum_file_descriptors
+
 import syslog
 
 
@@ -215,6 +225,9 @@ def doupdate(conn, msgDict):
 
 	msg={'service': 'update', 'msg': fail if fail else "OK"}
 	conns[conn].sendto(msg)
+	if not fail:
+		syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, 'hc updates, fs = %s' % (len(code)))
+		
 	return fail
 
 
@@ -244,9 +257,16 @@ def doupdateone(code, csum):
 
 
 def restart():
-	if verbose: print "restart:  execv %s %s" % (sys.argv[0], [sys.argv[0]]+cmdargs)
-	os.execv(sys.argv[0], [sys.argv[0]]+cmdargs)
-	print "should not be here"
+	if verbose: 
+		print "restart:  execv %s %s" % (sys.argv[0], [sys.argv[0]]+cmdargs)
+	syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, 'restart %s' % (sys.argv[0]))
+	e = "fallthrough" 
+	try:
+		os.execv(sys.argv[0], [sys.argv[0]]+cmdargs)
+	except Exception as e:
+		pass
+	print "should not be here:", str(e)
+	syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, 'restart failed: %s' % e)
 
 
 def process():
@@ -270,9 +290,15 @@ def process():
 			except KeyboardInterrupt:
 				running = False
 				break
+			except SystemExit:
+				syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, 'daemon exit, running=: %s' % running)
+				if running:
+					running = False
+				break
 			except:
 				if running:
 					syslogtrace('select')
+					running = False
 				break
 			if verbose: print "process: r is %s" % str(r)
 			for rfh in r[0]:
@@ -307,6 +333,7 @@ def process():
 
 def cleanup():
 	global running
+	if verbose: syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, 'cleanup')
 	running = False
 	for conn  in conns:
 		msg={'shutdown': 1, 'acks': conns[conn].ackcount}
@@ -317,9 +344,9 @@ def cleanup():
 
 
 def closeall():
+	if verbose: syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, 'closecall')
 	for conn  in conns:
 		conns[conn].close()
-	syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, 'exit')
 
 
 msgonly=False
@@ -485,14 +512,15 @@ if fdaemon:
 	print "daemoinizing... %s" % os.getpid()
 	context = daemon.DaemonContext(
 		working_directory='/tmp',
-		umask=0o002,
+		umask=0o022,
 		pidfile=pidfile,
+		detach_process=True, 
 #		initgroups=False,
 		)
 
 	context.signal_map = {
-		signal.SIGTERM: cleanup,
-		signal.SIGHUP: 'terminate',
+#		signal.SIGHUP: cleanup,
+		signal.SIGTERM: 'terminate',
 #		signal.SIGUSR1: reload_program_config,
 		}
 
@@ -506,11 +534,6 @@ if fdaemon:
 			process()
 		except:
 			syslogtrace('process')
-		if verbose: print "main: cleanup"
-		cleanup()
-		if dorestart:
-			if verbose: print "main: restart"
-			restart()
 
 else:
 	running = True
@@ -520,11 +543,10 @@ else:
 	except Exception as e:
 		if verbose: print "err: process exit: %s" % e
 		syslogtrace('process')
-	if verbose: print "main: cleanup"
-	cleanup()
-	if dorestart:
-		if verbose: print "main: restart"
-		restart()
+if verbose: print "main: cleanup"
+cleanup()
+if dorestart:
+	restart()