bg
Processes and system
Usage
bg [%<job>]Resumes a job you stopped with Ctrl+Z, in the background; it still belongs to this shell, so closing the terminal takes it with you unless you used nohup or disown.
Common flags
| Flag | Meaning |
|---|---|
| %1 | Resume job number 1 in the background. |
| %% or %+ | The current job, which is what bg uses when given no argument. |
| %- | The previous job. |
| %make | The job whose command line starts with make. |
Examples
bgResume the job you just stopped with Ctrl+Z, in the background.
bg %2Resume job 2 in the background while you keep using the shell.
What is running and what is eating the machine. Identifying it comes before killing it.
How to read this
- Square brackets [ ] mark a part you may leave out.
- An ellipsis … means you can list more than one.
- Flags are case-sensitive — in some commands -r and -R do different things.
Questions
Q. What does bg do?
Resumes a job you stopped with Ctrl+Z, in the background; it still belongs to this shell, so closing the terminal takes it with you unless you used nohup or disown.
Q. How do I type it?
bg [%<job>] — square brackets mark the parts you can leave out.
Q. How many flags are worth knowing?
4 are listed here; the full set is in man bg. This command sits under Processes and system.
Related commands
man page: man bg