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Programmatically check if a process is being run in the background

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linux-howto

http://stackoverflow.com – 2 questions: 1) Is there any Linux/Posix API to know if a process has been invoked as a background process? linux> myprogram & Can the code for myprogram detect that it has been invoked to run in the background (via &) ? 2) Is there any Linux/Posix API to make a process run in the background even if it has been started as a foreground process? I.E. somehow 'detach' from the shell at runtime.. (either detach itself from the shell completely, or run as a background process of the shell). linux> myprogram **** starting myprogram as a background job **** linux> The shell (HowTos)

fooubuntu's picture
Submitted by fooubuntu on 02/15/2013

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Hi All, I have a shell script in Linux and it will be invoked by 2 methods,

1) An automated background process . 2) Logining into the box and directly executing the script.

I need to put a validation in my shell script such that it will be executed successfully on when an automated background process invokes it.

I have a process originally running in the foreground.

I have a program that forks a process, and determine if child process should run in foreground and background. I call the signal function to handle the child signal before forking, to make sure dead child process will not turn into zombies.

I have Process Id for one background process and currently it is running state. I want to see the return code after the above running process is done.

for the forground process normally I use "echo $?". But how to get the return code for my background process on UNIX/Linux??

Thanks in advance!

Sriram

i want to save the PID of a background process and save it to a file along with the process name in linux. What is the command to do so? Can anybody help me out?

I currently have a background process on my unix server that's running hours longer than it should be.

I can't remember the command to allow me to see the output of a background process. I'll remember to bookmark this answer!

I'm trying to do something fairly simple:

$ ( cd /opt/myprogram && ./myprocess.sh >/dev/null 2>&1 & ; disown $! ) -bash: syntax error near unexpected token `;'

How can I bust out a one-liner to, in a sub-shell, execute a given script from a given folder, nulling the output, and sending it to the background?

I'm pretty sure I had the answer to this months ago and have misplaced it. Needless to say I will bookmark it this time.

I have a background process that's been running way longer than usual. It doesn't output anything to a file, so I can't 'tail -f' it. Is there a command that will enable me to see the output the process would be sending to the screen if it was not in the background?

Thanks.

I've started a long running and machine hog process. I've hit CTRL-Z to stop it. I've then put it in the background with bg. Oops, I should have restarted with fg so that I could easily stop and start it again. What is the easiest way to stop a process that was just put into the background?