Is it possible to view the screen state of a process?

[josemtzm]

I don't want to know the state (active, zombie, etc.). My question is, is it possible to view a process in action?. How to view a process in the background and check it?

I hope my question is clear.

[jr0sco]

Hi and Welcome. What's the process that you need to view activity for? If its a daemon you can look at /var/log/messages or /var/log/daemon.log. What ever the process is see if you can increase verbose/debugging either via a config file or as argument.

[mcclunyboy]

what about ps?

not sure if that is too obvious though - it reports process information, man it for information. I tend to use "

ps -ef

"

Obviously it doesn't show u the exact status of a process but it shows you its activity and can be useful when used in conjunction with other commands like top for investigatory purposes.

[josemtzm]

Thanks to all.
I've been thinking in a case of study: When I open a SSH connection to a BSD machine and later I install a port, for some reason the connection is lost and I have to enter some information to finish the installation process. If I can re-connect to the BSD machine with SSH: What can I do to see the installation screen? or, how can I enter the information needed?

Maybe some playing with BG and FG commands?

[atreyu]

yes, you could use bg/fg commands to control jobs within your terminal, but you'd be better off using the screen program. Install it, if you don't have it already - should be in your package repos. Then do man screen to see how to use it and report back if you need help using it.

hth

[josemtzm]

I'll take a look to screen + ssh.
Thanks.