Home·Terminal commands

fg

Processes and system

Usage

fg [%<job>]

Brings a background or stopped job back to the terminal; it only works on jobs of this shell, and you name them with a job number like `%1`, not a PID.

Common flags

FlagMeaning
%1Bring job number 1 to the foreground.
%% or %+The current job, the default when no argument is given.
%-The previous job.
%vimThe job whose command line starts with vim.

Examples

fg

Bring the most recent background job back to the terminal.

jobs -l && fg %2

See the list, then pull job 2 forward.

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 fg do?

Brings a background or stopped job back to the terminal; it only works on jobs of this shell, and you name them with a job number like `%1`, not a PID.

Q. How do I type it?

fg [%<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 fg. This command sits under Processes and system.

Related commands

man page: man fg