Hi,

if I run a job in background here I still see the output in the terminal...
you can store the output in a file and check that file later like

./bigjob.sh > output.txt &

A running job can be stopped with CTRL+z. If you type

bg

fg

Have you tried screen already?
With this tool you can start the big job and even close the terminal (or close the connection if it is a remote host) and later reattach it.
This would work something like that

screen -d -m bigjob.sh

screen -d -r

Perhaps it helps...
Basti

If you invoke the background process from a window terminal like "xterm" like this

#> program&

It's fine, but since the "program" is a child from the terminal process if you accidentely close the terminal you also kill the "program", so you can also use nohup to avoid closing the background process:

#> nohup program&

This way the "program" or background process doesnt "hang up" after closing his parent terminal.

Cheers

Another cool tool is dtach, you can direct the output to a socket and attach to it as you want (runs like a daemon).

dtach -n /tmp/myprog /usr/bin/myprog

to attach again:

dtach -a /tmp/myprog

When I want to run the process in to backgroud, I use the & at the end of command. I bring the background process back with bg and fg command. :) .

I try to build the article about linux command line in thai language at http://www.LinuxLane.com .

Cheers