diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 9dc6d9a71..ac58915cc 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -521,6 +521,9 @@ Other changes:
 * <exec> will now work on OpenVMS (please read the notes in
   <exec>'s manual page).  Bugzilla Report 21877.
 
+* <exec> will now have a new attribute spawn (default false).
+If set to true, the process will be spawned. Bugzilla Report 5907.
+
 * <parallel> now supports a timeout which can be used to recover
   from deadlocks, etc in the parallel threads. <parallel> also
   now supports a <daemons> nested element. This can be used to
diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/exec.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/exec.html
index 93ffa84dc..2cb5d4aa8 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/exec.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/exec.html
@@ -59,6 +59,15 @@ Notes</i>).
       in the &quot;os.name&quot; system property.</td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">spawn</td>
+    <td valign="top">whether or not you want the command to be spawned<br/>
+    Default is false.<br>
+    If you spawn a command, its output will not be logged by ant.<br/>
+    The input, output, error, and result property settings are not active when spawning a process.
+    </td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
+  </tr>
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">output</td>
     <td valign="top">Name of a file to which to write the output. If the error stream 
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/ExecTask.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/ExecTask.java
index f5a0af1f4..19228529c 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/ExecTask.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/ExecTask.java
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ import org.apache.tools.ant.util.FileUtils;
  * @author thomas.haas@softwired-inc.com
  * @author Stefan Bodewig
  * @author <a href="mailto:mariusz@rakiura.org">Mariusz Nowostawski</a>
+ * @author <a href="mailto:CHudak@arrowheadgrp.com">Charles Hudak</a>
  *
  * @since Ant 1.2
  *
@@ -90,6 +91,7 @@ public class ExecTask extends Task {
     private boolean failIfExecFails = true;
     private String executable;
     private boolean resolveExecutable = false;
+    private boolean spawn = false;
 
     private Redirector redirector = new Redirector(this);
 
@@ -99,6 +101,16 @@ public class ExecTask extends Task {
      */
     private boolean vmLauncher = true;
 
+    /**
+     * set whether or not you want the process to be spawned
+     * default is not spawned
+     * @param spawn if true you do not want ant to wait for the end of the process
+     * @since ant 1.6
+     */
+    public void setSpawn(boolean spawn) {
+        this.spawn = spawn;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Timeout in milliseconds after which the process will be killed.
      *
@@ -455,6 +467,7 @@ public class ExecTask extends Task {
         exe.setAntRun(getProject());
         exe.setWorkingDirectory(dir);
         exe.setVMLauncher(vmLauncher);
+        exe.setSpawn(spawn);
         String[] environment = env.getVariables();
         if (environment != null) {
             for (int i = 0; i < environment.length; i++) {
@@ -479,22 +492,26 @@ public class ExecTask extends Task {
     protected final void runExecute(Execute exe) throws IOException {
         int returnCode = -1; // assume the worst
 
-        returnCode = exe.execute();
+        if (!spawn) {
+            returnCode = exe.execute();
 
-        //test for and handle a forced process death
-        if (exe.killedProcess()) {
-            log("Timeout: killed the sub-process", Project.MSG_WARN);
-        }
-        maybeSetResultPropertyValue(returnCode);
-        if (Execute.isFailure(returnCode)) {
-            if (failOnError) {
-                throw new BuildException(getTaskType() + " returned: "
-                    + returnCode, getLocation());
-            } else {
-                log("Result: " + returnCode, Project.MSG_ERR);
+            //test for and handle a forced process death
+            if (exe.killedProcess()) {
+                log("Timeout: killed the sub-process", Project.MSG_WARN);
             }
+            maybeSetResultPropertyValue(returnCode);
+            if (Execute.isFailure(returnCode)) {
+                if (failOnError) {
+                    throw new BuildException(getTaskType() + " returned: "
+                        + returnCode, getLocation());
+                } else {
+                    log("Result: " + returnCode, Project.MSG_ERR);
+                }
+            }
+            redirector.complete();
+        } else {
+            exe.spawn();
         }
-        redirector.complete();
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Execute.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Execute.java
index 0e38049d4..9e76abe03 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Execute.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Execute.java
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ import org.apache.tools.ant.types.Commandline;
  *
  * @author thomas.haas@softwired-inc.com
  * @author <a href="mailto:jtulley@novell.com">Jeff Tulley</a>
+ * @author <a href="mailto:CHudak@arrowheadgrp.com">Charles Hudak</a>
  *
  * @since Ant 1.2
  *
@@ -103,6 +104,7 @@ public class Execute {
     private static CommandLauncher vmLauncher = null;
     private static CommandLauncher shellLauncher = null;
     private static Vector procEnvironment = null;
+    private boolean spawn = false;
 
     /** Used to destroy processes when the VM exits. */
     private static ProcessDestroyer processDestroyer = new ProcessDestroyer();
@@ -171,6 +173,17 @@ public class Execute {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * set whether or not you want the process to be spawned
+     * default is not spawned
+     *
+     * @param spawn if true you do not want ant to wait for the end of the process
+     *
+     * @since ant 1.6
+     */
+    public void setSpawn(boolean spawn) {
+        this.spawn = spawn;
+    }
 
     /**
      * Find the list of environment variables for this process.
@@ -506,6 +519,29 @@ public class Execute {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Starts a process defined by the command line.
+     * Ant will not wait for this process, nor log its output
+     *
+     * @throws java.io.IOException The exception is thrown, if launching
+     *            of the subprocess failed
+     * @since ant 1.6
+     */
+    public void spawn() throws IOException {
+        final Process process = launch(project, getCommandline(),
+                                       getEnvironment(), workingDirectory,
+                                       useVMLauncher);
+        if (Os.isFamily("windows")) {
+            try {
+                Thread.sleep(1000);
+            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+                project.log("interruption in the sleep after having spawned a process",
+                    Project.MSG_VERBOSE);
+            }
+        }
+        project.log("spawned process " + process.toString(), Project.MSG_VERBOSE);
+    }
+
     /**
      * wait for a given process
      *