Question 3.31: You want to run a program but also work on some other task....
You want to run a program but also work on some other task.
Run the program or command in the background using the & command.
For example:
| $ python speed.py & [1] 2528 $ ls |
Rather than wait until the program has finished running, the command line displays the process ID (the second number) and immediately allows you to continue with whatever other commands you want to run. You can then use this process ID to kill the background process (Recipe 3.24).
To bring the background process back to the foreground, use the fg command:
| $ fg python speed.py |
This will report the command or program that is running and then wait for it to finish.
Discussion
Output from the background process will still appear in the Terminal.
An alternative to putting processes in the background is to just open more than one Terminal window.
See Also
For information on managing processes, see Recipe 3.24.