DOC HOME SITE MAP MAN PAGES GNU INFO SEARCH PRINT BOOK
 
Controlling processes

Suspending a job

You can only suspend a job that was started in your current shell. To suspend a running job, press <Ctrl>Z (or the current defined suspend key). The job will stop running, but will remain available (and can be continued).

For example:

   $ sort bigfile.dat >bigfile.out
   <Ctrl>Z
   [1] + Stopped               sort bigfile.dat>bigfile.out
If <Ctrl>Z does not work, your suspend key may not be set up correctly. To identify the suspend key, use the following command:
   $ stty -a | grep susp
   swtch = ^@;susp = ^Z;start = ^Q;stop = ^S;
This command line looks for the word susp in the stty settings. If it is present, it will tell you the current suspend key. If it is not present, or if you want to change it to another key, you can modify it using the stty command. For example, to make <Ctrl>Q the suspend key, enter the following:
   $ stty susp ^Q
(The ``^Q'' is entered by typing a caret (^) followed by a letter ``Q''.)
Next topic: Moving background jobs to the foreground
Previous topic: Killing a process

© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003