I would like to start a background process from bash script, but at the same time give it another name and also make it immune to CTRL-C. I tried the following:

exec -a NiceName java -cp ....long java command line & tail -f logs/the.log 

I want the exec to provide the process another name than just java. I want to start it in the background to be able to immediately run tail on the logs of the process to verify the startup.

This works until I hit CTRL-C to stop the script/tail because the SIGINT is passed to the java process which terminates too.

I also tried combinations of (exec ...&) and (exec ...)&. What does work is

exec bash -c "java command line escaping hell&" tail -f logs/the.log 

but I would hope there is way without escaping hell. I also tried things with disown to no avail.

If I remove the exec, the sub-process is immune to CTRL-C, but then I cannot give it a name.