diff --git a/PBot/Class.pm b/PBot/Class.pm
index dd4bf650..625bcc7d 100644
--- a/PBot/Class.pm
+++ b/PBot/Class.pm
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ sub new {
   }
 
   $self->{pbot} = $conf{pbot};
+  $self->{pbot}->{logger}->log("Initializing $class\n");
   $self->initialize(%conf);
   return $self;
 }
diff --git a/PBot/DualIndexHashObject.pm b/PBot/DualIndexHashObject.pm
index 806a667d..329e0037 100644
--- a/PBot/DualIndexHashObject.pm
+++ b/PBot/DualIndexHashObject.pm
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 # file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
 
 package PBot::DualIndexHashObject;
-use parent 'PBot::Class';
 
 use warnings; use strict;
 use feature 'unicode_strings';
@@ -20,6 +19,16 @@ use feature 'unicode_strings';
 use Text::Levenshtein qw(fastdistance);
 use JSON;
 
+sub new {
+  my ($proto, %conf) = @_;
+  my $class = ref($proto) || $proto;
+  my $self = bless {}, $class;
+  Carp::croak("Missing pbot reference to " . __FILE__) unless exists $conf{pbot};
+  $self->{pbot} = $conf{pbot};
+  $self->initialize(%conf);
+  return $self;
+}
+
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
   $self->{name}     = $conf{name} // 'Dual Index hash object';
diff --git a/PBot/HashObject.pm b/PBot/HashObject.pm
index 3e876419..c9b29a6e 100644
--- a/PBot/HashObject.pm
+++ b/PBot/HashObject.pm
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
 # file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
 
 package PBot::HashObject;
-use parent 'PBot::Class';
 
 use warnings; use strict;
 use feature 'unicode_strings';
@@ -19,6 +18,16 @@ use feature 'unicode_strings';
 use Text::Levenshtein qw(fastdistance);
 use JSON;
 
+sub new {
+  my ($proto, %conf) = @_;
+  my $class = ref($proto) || $proto;
+  my $self = bless {}, $class;
+  Carp::croak("Missing pbot reference to " . __FILE__) unless exists $conf{pbot};
+  $self->{pbot} = $conf{pbot};
+  $self->initialize(%conf);
+  return $self;
+}
+
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
   $self->{name} = $conf{name} // 'hash object';
diff --git a/PBot/Logger.pm b/PBot/Logger.pm
index 602795d5..55dcc49b 100644
--- a/PBot/Logger.pm
+++ b/PBot/Logger.pm
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 # file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
 
 package PBot::Logger;
-use parent 'PBot::Class';
 
 use warnings; use strict;
 use feature 'unicode_strings';
@@ -11,6 +10,17 @@ use feature 'unicode_strings';
 use Scalar::Util qw/openhandle/;
 use File::Basename;
 
+sub new {
+  my ($proto, %conf) = @_;
+  my $class = ref($proto) || $proto;
+  my $self = bless {}, $class;
+  Carp::croak("Missing pbot reference to " . __FILE__) unless exists $conf{pbot};
+  $self->{pbot} = $conf{pbot};
+  print "Initializing " . __PACKAGE__ . "\n" unless $self->{pbot}->{overrides}->{'general.daemon'};
+  $self->initialize(%conf);
+  return $self;
+}
+
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
   $self->{logfile} = $conf{filename} // Carp::croak "Missing logfile parameter in " . __FILE__;
@@ -18,7 +28,7 @@ sub initialize {
 
   my $path = dirname $self->{logfile};
   if (not -d $path) {
-    print "Creating new logfile path: $path\n";
+    print "Creating new logfile path: $path\n" unless $self->{pbot}->{overrides}->{'general.daemon'};
     mkdir $path or Carp::croak "Couldn't create logfile path: $!\n";
   }
 
@@ -34,7 +44,7 @@ sub log {
   my $time = localtime;
   $text =~ s/(\P{PosixGraph})/my $ch = $1; if ($ch =~ m{[\s]}) { $ch } else { sprintf "\\x%02X", ord $ch }/ge;
   print LOGFILE "$time :: $text" if openhandle *LOGFILE;
-  print "$time :: $text";
+  print "$time :: $text" unless $self->{pbot}->{overrides}->{'general.daemon'};
 }
 
 sub rotate_log {
@@ -42,6 +52,7 @@ sub rotate_log {
   my $time = localtime $self->{start};
   $time =~ s/\s+/_/g;
 
+  $self->log("Rotating log to $self->{logfile}-$time\n");
   # logfile has to be closed first for maximum compatibility with `rename`
   close LOGFILE;
   rename $self->{logfile}, $self->{logfile} . '-' . $time;
diff --git a/PBot/PBot.pm b/PBot/PBot.pm
index e16406a0..b49ddfc7 100644
--- a/PBot/PBot.pm
+++ b/PBot/PBot.pm
@@ -60,9 +60,6 @@ sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
   $self->{startup_timestamp} = time;
 
-  $self->{atexit} = PBot::Registerable->new(%conf, pbot => $self);
-  $self->register_signal_handlers;
-
   my $data_dir   = $conf{data_dir};
   my $module_dir = $conf{module_dir};
   my $plugin_dir = $conf{plugin_dir};
@@ -78,8 +75,32 @@ sub initialize {
     }
   }
 
-  # logger created first to allow other modules to log things
-  $self->{logger}   = PBot::Logger->new(pbot => $self, filename => "$data_dir/log/log", %conf);
+  # check command-line arguments for registry overrides
+  foreach my $arg (@ARGV) {
+    next if $arg =~ m/^-?(?:general\.)?(?:config|data|module|plugin)_dir=.*$/; # already processed
+    my ($item, $value) = split /=/, $arg, 2;
+
+    if (not defined $item or not defined $value) {
+      print STDERR "Fatal error: unknown argument `$arg`; arguments must be in the form of `section.key=value` (e.g.: irc.botnick=newnick)\n";
+      exit;
+    }
+
+    my ($section, $key) = split /\./, $item, 2;
+    if (not defined $section or not defined $key) {
+      print STDERR "Fatal error: bad argument `$arg`; registry entries must be in the form of section.key (e.g.: irc.botnick)\n";
+      exit;
+    }
+
+    $section =~ s/^-//; # remove a leading - to allow arguments like -irc.botnick due to habitual use of -args
+    $self->{overrides}->{"$section.$key"} = $value;
+  }
+
+  # let modules register signal handlers
+  $self->{atexit} = PBot::Registerable->new(%conf, pbot => $self);
+  $self->register_signal_handlers;
+
+  # create logger
+  $self->{logger} = PBot::Logger->new(pbot => $self, filename => "$data_dir/log/log", %conf);
 
   # make sure the environment is sane
   if (not -d $data_dir) {
@@ -165,24 +186,9 @@ sub initialize {
   $self->{registry}->set('general', 'plugin_dir', 'value', $plugin_dir, 0, 1);
 
   # override registry entries with command-line arguments, if any
-  foreach my $arg (@ARGV) {
-    next if $arg =~ m/^-?(?:general\.)?(?:config|data|module|plugin)_dir=.*$/; # already processed
-    my ($item, $value) = split /=/, $arg, 2;
-
-    if (not defined $item or not defined $value) {
-      $self->{logger}->log("Fatal error: unknown argument `$arg`; arguments must be in the form of `section.key=value` (e.g.: irc.botnick=newnick)\n");
-      exit;
-    }
-
-    my ($section, $key) = split /\./, $item, 2;
-
-    if (not defined $section or not defined $key) {
-      $self->{logger}->log("Fatal error: bad argument `$arg`; registry entries must be in the form of section.key (e.g.: irc.botnick)\n");
-      exit;
-    }
-
-    $section =~ s/^-//; # remove a leading - to allow arguments like -irc.botnick due to habitual use of -args
-
+  foreach my $override (keys %{$self->{overrides}}) {
+    my ($section, $key) = split /\./, $override;
+    my $value = $self->{overrides}->{$override};
     $self->{logger}->log("Overriding $section.$key to $value\n");
     $self->{registry}->set($section, $key, 'value', $value, 0, 1);
   }
diff --git a/PBot/Registerable.pm b/PBot/Registerable.pm
index 79a289eb..7416183a 100644
--- a/PBot/Registerable.pm
+++ b/PBot/Registerable.pm
@@ -8,11 +8,20 @@
 # file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
 
 package PBot::Registerable;
-use parent 'PBot::Class';
 
 use warnings; use strict;
 use feature 'unicode_strings';
 
+sub new {
+  my ($proto, %conf) = @_;
+  my $class = ref($proto) || $proto;
+  my $self = bless {}, $class;
+  Carp::croak("Missing pbot reference to " . __FILE__) unless exists $conf{pbot};
+  $self->{pbot} = $conf{pbot};
+  $self->initialize(%conf);
+  return $self;
+}
+
 sub initialize {
   my $self = shift;
   $self->{handlers} = [];