bg
TLDR
Resume stopped job in background
$ bg
Resume specific job$ bg [%1]
SYNOPSIS
bg [job-spec]
DESCRIPTION
bg resumes suspended jobs in the background. It's a bash built-in command that continues execution of jobs that were stopped (typically with Ctrl+Z) while allowing continued use of the terminal.
The command is part of bash job control functionality.
PARAMETERS
job-spec
Job identifier (%1, %2, etc.)If no job specified, bg operates on the most recently stopped job.
JOB SPECIFICATIONS
%n
Job number n%string
Job whose command begins with string%?string
Job whose command contains string%% or %+
Current job%-
Previous job
WORKFLOW
$ # Start long-running command
./long_process
# Suspend with Ctrl+Z
[Ctrl+Z]
# Resume in background
bg
# Or resume specific job
bg %1
# List jobs
jobs
# Bring to foreground
fg %1
./long_process
# Suspend with Ctrl+Z
[Ctrl+Z]
# Resume in background
bg
# Or resume specific job
bg %1
# List jobs
jobs
# Bring to foreground
fg %1
CAVEATS
Only works with job control enabled shells. Backgrounded jobs may stop if they try to read from terminal. Output still goes to terminal unless redirected. Jobs terminate when shell exits unless using nohup or disown.
HISTORY
bg has been part of job control in Unix shells since the C shell (csh) introduced the feature in the late 1970s.
