Dealing with Stopped Jobs

Sometimes when you try to logout, you'll get a message saying there are "stopped jobs". These stopped jobs are programs or processes which have been suspended by a ^Z (Ctrl - Z) command. You have to either make the job active again, or get it running properly in the "background" before you can logout.

Stopping a program is useful if you want to temporarily suspend working on one program so you can do something else.

To see a list of stopped jobs, type:

jobs

You will see a list of the stopped programs. Here's an example showing a stopped "learn" session:

[1] + Stopped learn

You can kill this stopped job by typing:

kill %1 (where %1 is the number of the job

to be killed>

Or you can make the program active again by typing:

fg %1 (where %1 is the number of the job)

fg stands for foreground. (You are bringing the program from suspended status back to the foreground.) Once brought back to the foreground, you can continue the program or quit in a normal manner.