CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxbashcommand-linebackground-process
danivicario
danivicario

Reputation: 1801

How to deal with output from a background linux task

I have a task that is continuously echoing info.

For example, if you do a git clone and you want to send that task to the background (by using ampersand)

git clone https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js.git &

then the git clone operation is constantly refreshing the screen with the new percentage of the git clone process, ie:

Receiving objects:  47% (22332/47018), 92.53 MiB | 480 KiB/s   1410/47018), 7.18 MiB | 185 KiB/s
Receiving objects:  53% (24937/47018), 99.40 MiB | 425 KiB/s   1410/47018), 7.18 MiB | 185 KiB/s

So I cannot continue doing other operations in the foreground, as these updates are preventing me to see what I am trying to write.

Can you tell me guys how to effectively send one verbose task like this to the background?

Thanks a lot!

Upvotes: 9

Views: 5655

Answers (4)

CoderDake
CoderDake

Reputation: 1547

If you are specifically looking to put it in the background you can append an ampersand (&) to the end of the command, or while it is running use ctrl+z then the command 'bg' to run it in the background. To bring it back, use jobs to list your jobs and then fg %{job #} to bring it back. Hope this helps and works in this unique situation

Upvotes: -1

jman
jman

Reputation: 11626

The other answers are good, but you can also use:

git clone -q ...

See here for details.

Upvotes: 4

nullrevolution
nullrevolution

Reputation: 4137

you could have the process write its output to a file (if you need to view it later) like this:

git clone https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js.git >output.txt &

or discard the output altogether like this:

git clone https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js.git >/dev/null &

edit:

you could also include any error messages sent to stderror in either of the above options by replacing the & with 2>&1 &

Upvotes: 6

Emanuele Paolini
Emanuele Paolini

Reputation: 10172

redirect its standard output:

git clone https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js.git > /dev/null &

or use appropriate verbose options of the command (in this case git)

Upvotes: 1

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