How do I run a Unix process in the background?

In Unix, a background process executes independently of the shell, leaving the terminal free for other work. To run a process in the background, include an  &  (an ampersand) at the end of the command you use to run the job. Following are some examples:

• To run the count program, which will display the process identification number of the job, enter: count &
• To check the status of your job, enter: ps
• To bring a background process to the foreground, enter: fg
• If you have more than one job suspended in the background, enter: fg %#

  Replace  #  with the job number, as shown in the first column of the output of the jobs command.

• You can kill a background process by entering: kill PID

  Replace PID with the process ID of the job. If that fails, enter the following:

  kill -KILL PID
• To determine a job's PID, enter: jobs -l
• If you are using sh, ksh, bash, or zsh, you may prevent background processes from sending error messages to the terminal. Redirect the output to /dev/null using the following syntax: count 2> /dev/null &

At Indiana University, to get support for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems, see At IU, how do I get support for Linux or Unix?

Also see:

• In Unix, how should I submit CPU-intensive jobs?
• In Unix, how do I cancel a batch job?
• In Unix, why can't I kill certain background processes even with kill -9?
• In Unix, what do the output fields of the ps command mean?
• Unix job control command list
• Introduction to Unix commands