diff -ur nsca-2.7.2.original/src/nsca.c nsca-2.7.2/src/nsca.c
--- nsca-2.7.2.original/src/nsca.c	2007-07-03 20:57:28.000000000 +0100
+++ nsca-2.7.2/src/nsca.c	2008-01-08 13:40:26.000000000 +0000
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@
 int     sigrestart=FALSE;
 int     sigshutdown=FALSE;
 
+int	using_alternate_dump_file=FALSE;
 static FILE *command_file_fp=NULL;
 
 struct handler_entry *rhand=NULL;
@@ -923,7 +924,7 @@
                 }
 
         /* open the command file if we're aggregating writes */
-        if(aggregate_writes==TRUE && !command_file_fp){
+        if(aggregate_writes==TRUE){
                 if(open_command_file()==ERROR){
                         close(sock);
 			if(mode==MULTI_PROCESS_DAEMON)
@@ -1119,7 +1120,7 @@
 	struct stat statbuf;
 
         /* file is already open */
-        if(command_file_fp!=NULL)
+        if(command_file_fp!=NULL && using_alternate_dump_file==FALSE)
                 return OK;
 
 	/* command file doesn't exist - monitoring app probably isn't running... */
@@ -1135,6 +1136,7 @@
 				syslog(LOG_ERR,"Could not open alternate dump file '%s' for appending",alternate_dump_file);
 			return ERROR;
                         }
+		using_alternate_dump_file=TRUE;
 
 		return OK;
 	        }
@@ -1147,6 +1149,7 @@
                 return ERROR;
                 }
 
+	using_alternate_dump_file=FALSE;
         return OK;
         }