Running commands in background (&) in Bash Scripting - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Running Commands in Background with & in Bash

📖 Scenario: You are managing a server where you need to run multiple tasks without waiting for each to finish before starting the next. Running commands in the background helps you do this efficiently.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to run commands in the background using & so you can start a task and continue working without waiting for it to finish.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a simple command that runs in the foreground

Add a background command using &

Use a variable to hold a command string

Run the command stored in the variable in the background

Print a message after starting the background command

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Running commands in the background is useful when you want to start long tasks but keep using the terminal for other work.

💼 Career

System administrators and developers often run scripts and commands in the background to improve productivity and manage multiple tasks efficiently.

1

Create a simple command

Write a command that uses echo to display the text "Starting task".

Bash Scripting

# Write the echo command below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo "Starting task" to print the message.

2

Run a command in the background

Add a command that runs sleep 5 in the background using & so it does not block the terminal.

Bash Scripting

echo "Starting task"
# Run sleep 5 in the background below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Add & after sleep 5 to run it in the background.

3

Use a variable to hold a command

Create a variable called cmd and assign it the string "sleep 3". Then run the command stored in cmd in the background using &.

Bash Scripting

echo "Starting task"
sleep 5 &
# Create variable cmd and run it in background below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign cmd="sleep 3" and run it with $cmd &.

4

Print a message after starting background commands

Add a command to print "Tasks started" after starting the background commands.

Bash Scripting

echo "Starting task"
sleep 5 &
cmd="sleep 3"
$cmd &
# Print "Tasks started" below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo "Tasks started" to print the message.