09/03: Launching Tasks in the Foreground and Background
Category: Linux tips
Posted by: hajime osako
UNIX Tutorial Five
If you start a long-running task and forget to add the ampersand, you can still swap that task into the background. Instead of pressing ctrl-C (to terminate the foreground task) and then restarting it in the background, just press ctrl-Z after the command starts, type bg, and press enter. You'll get your prompt back and be able to continue with other work. Use the fg command to bring a background task to the foreground.
$ sleep 1000 (type any command to be background) Ctrl + z, then type bg $ jobs (to check current jobs) $ fg %1Processes - Linux Shell Commands
cc hugepgm.c > outlist &Note: It's a good idea to redirect the output of background tasks to a file, as shown here, since the background task still shares the console with foreground tasks. If you don't, the background task will splash any output it might produce all over your screen while you're editing a file or typing another command.
If you start a long-running task and forget to add the ampersand, you can still swap that task into the background. Instead of pressing ctrl-C (to terminate the foreground task) and then restarting it in the background, just press ctrl-Z after the command starts, type bg, and press enter. You'll get your prompt back and be able to continue with other work. Use the fg command to bring a background task to the foreground.
