Linux init script what does 0<&- &> achieve

These are redirections.

• 0<&- closes the file descriptor 0 (standard input).
• &> redirects both stdout and stderr (in this case to the logfile)

Are you sure there was no echo before $!? $! would be interpreted as a command and most probably result in a

-bash: 18552: command not found

&<- closes the file descriptor. But more fundamentally, searching for those little "&" atoms on Google can be painful! See this site on bash redirection for background info.