hapless

hap command [options] [arguments]

hapless is a lightweight command-line utility for running and managing background processes. It wraps commands to track their status during and after execution, without requiring a daemon process or configuration files. Simply prefix any command with hap run to launch it in the background with automatic logging and status tracking.
The tool provides a convenient overview of all tracked processes with their current status, exit codes, and runtime. Logs for both stdout and stderr are automatically captured and can be reviewed at any time.

run command

Run a command in the background

Show status of a specific process

Show logs of a process (-f for follow mode)

Pause a running process

Resume a paused process

Terminate a process

Remove completed processes from the list

Does not persist across system reboots. Process tracking relies on PID files stored locally. Interactive commands that require terminal input are not supported in the background.

hapless was created by Misha Behersky (bmwant) and is written in Python. It was designed to be a simpler alternative to tools like screen, tmux, or nohup for basic background process management, with the goal of requiring zero configuration.

nohup(1), screen(1), tmux(1), bg(1)