diff --git a/include/villas/nodes/shmem.h b/include/villas/nodes/shmem.h
index 5bf02ec96..0ea273dc3 100644
--- a/include/villas/nodes/shmem.h
+++ b/include/villas/nodes/shmem.h
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ struct shmem {
 	int insize, outsize; /**< Size of ingoing and outgoing queue, respectively. */
 	int cond_out; /**< Whether to use a pthread_cond_t to signal if new samples are written to outqueue. */
 	int cond_in; /**< Whether to use a pthread_cond_t to signal if new samples are written to inqueue. */
+	char **exec; /**< External program to execute on start. */
 
 	struct memtype *manager; /**< Manager for the shared memory region. */
 	int fd; /**< Handle as returned by shm_open().*/
diff --git a/include/villas/utils.h b/include/villas/utils.h
index 99fbf4bfb..856c4ec1c 100644
--- a/include/villas/utils.h
+++ b/include/villas/utils.h
@@ -245,3 +245,5 @@ void signals_init(void (*cb)(int signal, siginfo_t *sinfo, void *ctx));
  * @retval 0 Everything was okay.
  */
 int sha1sum(FILE *f, unsigned char *sha1);
+
+pid_t spawn(const char* name, char **argv);
diff --git a/lib/nodes/shmem.c b/lib/nodes/shmem.c
index 0c890b6d6..e2f5435c3 100644
--- a/lib/nodes/shmem.c
+++ b/lib/nodes/shmem.c
@@ -28,6 +28,22 @@ int shmem_parse(struct node *n, config_setting_t *cfg) {
 		shm->cond_out = false;
 	if (!config_setting_lookup_bool(cfg, "cond_in", &shm->cond_in))
 		shm->cond_in = false;
+	config_setting_t *exec_setting = config_setting_lookup(cfg, "exec");
+	if (!exec_setting) {
+		shm->exec = NULL;
+	} else {
+		if (!config_setting_is_array(exec_setting))
+			cerror(exec_setting, "Invalid format for exec");
+		shm->exec = malloc(sizeof(char*) * (config_setting_length(exec_setting) + 1));
+		int i;
+		for (i = 0; i < config_setting_length(exec_setting); i++) {
+			const char* elm = config_setting_get_string_elem(exec_setting, i);
+			if (!elm)
+				cerror(exec_setting, "Invalid format for exec");
+			shm->exec[i] = strdup(elm);
+		}
+		shm->exec[i] = NULL;
+	}
 
 	return 0;
 }
@@ -73,6 +89,8 @@ int shmem_open(struct node *n) {
 	if (pool_init(&shm->shared->pool, shm->insize+shm->outsize, SAMPLE_LEN(shm->sample_size), shm->manager) < 0)
 		error("Shm pool allocation failed (not enough memory?)");
 
+	if (shm->exec && !spawn(shm->exec[0], shm->exec))
+		serror("Failed to spawn external program");
 	return 0;
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/utils.c b/lib/utils.c
index 4b408d940..9f3b3edbe 100644
--- a/lib/utils.c
+++ b/lib/utils.c
@@ -411,6 +411,11 @@ void signals_init(void (*cb)(int signal, siginfo_t *sinfo, void *ctx))
 	sigemptyset(&sa_quit.sa_mask);
 	sigaction(SIGINT, &sa_quit, NULL);
 	sigaction(SIGTERM, &sa_quit, NULL);
+	struct sigaction sa_chld = {
+		.sa_flags = 0,
+		.sa_handler = SIG_IGN
+	};
+	sigaction(SIGCHLD, &sa_chld, NULL);
 }
 
 int sha1sum(FILE *f, unsigned char *sha1)
@@ -436,4 +441,17 @@ int sha1sum(FILE *f, unsigned char *sha1)
 	fseek(f, seek, SEEK_SET);
 
 	return 0;
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
+
+pid_t
+spawn(const char* name, char **argv) {
+	pid_t pid = fork();
+	switch(pid) {
+	case -1:
+		return -1;
+	case 0:
+		return execvp(name, argv);
+	default:
+		return pid;
+	}
+}