how to spawn a separate process in the background while running a foreground process

Question

e.g., I want run a python -m HTTPSimpleServer in the background while running a watch in the background

python -m HTTPSimpleServer; watch -n (my awesome test command)

how can I run both in parallel spawning from one command.

Can you spawn and make it the same process? – Anthon May 27 '16 at 17:34 — Anthon, May 27 '16 at 17:34

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 28 '16 at 13:50

3

python -m HTTPSimpleServer &  # Your Python process will now be in the background
serverpid="$!"                # Capture its PID so that you can kill it later.
watch -n /path/to/AwesomeTestCommand Arg1 Arg2
# Some time later...
kill "$serverpid"             # Make your Python process go away

edited May 28 '16 at 13:50

cas

78,579

answered May 27 '16 at 18:35

DopeGhoti

76,081

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 27 '16 at 18:57

1

Try that:

python -m HTTPSimpleServer & watch -n

answered May 27 '16 at 18:57

Luciano Andress Martini

6,628

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 27 '16 at 16:57

0

Looks like replacing the ; with & ought to do the job. Add another & at the end to put both programs in the background.

answered May 27 '16 at 16:57

stolenmoment

632

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 17 '17 at 00:43

0

This may sound like a reply to an old post, but you can simply run the application in nohup

nohup python -m HTTPSimpleServer & watch -n

answered Aug 17 '17 at 00:43

IndikaM

101

See: https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/3886/117549 – Jeff Schaller Aug 17 '17 at 01:07

how to spawn a separate process in the background while running a foreground process

4 Answers4