Bash job control is a powerful feature that allows users to manage multiple processes efficiently within the Bash shell environment. It enables you to suspend, resume, and background jobs, enhancing your multitasking capabilities.
Job control in Bash provides a way to interact with running processes, giving you more flexibility in managing your terminal sessions. With job control, you can:
Here are some essential job control commands you should know:
Ctrl + Z
: Suspend the current foreground processbg
: Resume a suspended process in the backgroundfg
: Bring a background process to the foregroundjobs
: List all current jobs&
: Run a command in the background
# Start a long-running process
$ sleep 100
# Suspend the process with Ctrl + Z
[1]+ Stopped sleep 100
# Resume the process in the background
$ bg
[1]+ sleep 100 &
# Bring the process back to the foreground
$ fg
sleep 100
# Start a command in the background
$ long_running_script.sh &
[1] 12345
# List all jobs
$ jobs
[1]+ Running long_running_script.sh &
# Bring the job to the foreground
$ fg %1
long_running_script.sh
To further enhance your Bash skills, explore these related topics:
By mastering Bash job control, you'll be able to work more efficiently in the terminal, managing multiple tasks with ease and precision.