Executing applications in a terminal without losing the prompt

[PhysicsRules]

Hello. This is a pretty simple question, and it has probably already been asked, but I cannot find it.

When I execute an application in a terminal (opened from the GUI) that opens a new window (emacs, for instance), the terminal prompt is gone as long as the application is running.

I know there is a way to open the programs without losing the prompt...I have done it before...but I cannot remember. I believe it involves putting some character at the beginning or the end of the command.

Thank you.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Try it like this:

app_name -e &

or just...

app_name &

[Cabhan]

The & at the end of the commandline means "Run this in the background". This disconnects the application from the terminal: it won't keep the terminal busy, but you can't use the terminal to communicate with the program. Therefore, for something like emacs that opens a new window, this is fine, but a program that requires terminal input will not work.

Hope that helps!

[egan]

And if you start a program in the normal way, do the input you need to do, and then want the prompt back, you can press Control Z to suspend it. You can then do other commands and such. If you want to program to continue running in the background, type bg after suspending it. If you want to restart it in the foreground, type fg.

If you have multiple jobs as they are called, you can refer to specific ones with %# where # is the # of the job. To get a list of suspended and backgrounded jobs you can type jobs at the prompt. When jobs finish they will notify you on a prompt refresh.

[hugortega]

Just to show another (powerfull) option: the screen program.

This is a very nice program because you can start a program not only in background, but using a different process and even, close the terminal (or remote session) and recover the screen's session later. Just start a terminal and type

$ screen

and this starts a new screen's session... basically, a new terminal. Execute any program, and press Ctrl + A, then D to detach the session.

At this moment you can close your terminal or even your (remote) session, and start a new terminal and use:

screen -r

to recover the detached session. It's like magic

Very nice and usefull if you often use remote sessions.

Greetings,

Hugo

[hazel]

Or you can just open another console. Most distros create 6 virtual consoles for you and open your GUI desktop (if you've got one) on console 7. You can switch between virtual consoles by using ALT-Fn where n is the number of the console you want. You have to log on at each console but after that, switching between them is easy.