diff --git a/discovery.php b/discovery.php
index 1961a0cb50..580095ae43 100755
--- a/discovery.php
+++ b/discovery.php
@@ -184,7 +184,6 @@ if($discovered_devices) {
 $string = $argv[0] . " $doing " .  date("F j, Y, G:i") . " - $discovered_devices devices discovered in $proctime secs";
 if ($debug) echo("$string\n");
 
-# FIXME EWW
-shell_exec("echo '".$string."' >> ".$config['log_file']);
+logfile($string);
 
 ?>
diff --git a/includes/functions.php b/includes/functions.php
index bc5a5c6ed4..6d7c909209 100755
--- a/includes/functions.php
+++ b/includes/functions.php
@@ -45,11 +45,20 @@ function zeropad_lineno($num, $length)
   return $num;
 }
 
-function only_alphanumeric( $string )
+function only_alphanumeric($string)
 {
   return preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/', '', $string);
 }
 
+function logfile($string)
+{
+  global $config;
+
+  $fd = fopen($config['log_file'],'a');
+  fputs($fd,$string);
+  fclose($fd);
+}
+
 function write_dev_attrib($device_id, $attrib_type, $attrib_value)
 {
   $count_sql = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM devices_attribs WHERE `device_id` = '" . $device_id . "' AND `attrib_type` = '$attrib_type'";
diff --git a/poller.php b/poller.php
index 2e8c161c8a..283ec4c414 100755
--- a/poller.php
+++ b/poller.php
@@ -326,7 +326,8 @@ if($polled_devices) {
 
 $string = $argv[0] . " $doing " .  date("F j, Y, G:i") . " - $polled_devices devices polled in $poller_time secs";
 if ($debug) echo("$string\n");
-shell_exec("echo '".$string."' >> ".$config['log_file']); # FIXME EWW
+
+logfile($string);
 
 unset($config); ### Remove this for testing