The jobs command is a Unix and Linux utility that displays a list of jobs that are running or stopped in the background or suspended in the foreground of the current shell.
Here is the basic syntax for using the jobs command:
jobs
The jobs command does not take any arguments.
To use the jobs command, you first need to start a job in the background or suspend a job in the foreground.
To start a job in the background, you can use the & operator at the end of the command.
For example, to start the sleep command in the background, you can use the following command:
sleep 100 &
This will start the sleep command in the background and return control to the shell prompt.
To suspend a job in the foreground, you can use the CTRL+Z key combination.
For example, to suspend the sleep command in the foreground, you can use the following command:
sleep 100
Then, while the sleep command is running, press CTRL+Z to suspend it.
Once you have a job running or suspended in the background or foreground, you can use the jobs command to display a list of jobs.
For example:
jobs
This will display a list of jobs that are running or stopped in the background or suspended in the foreground of the current shell.
Each job is assigned a job number, and the status of the job is indicated by a symbol. For example, a + symbol indicates that the job is the current foreground job, and a - symbol indicates that the job is the previous foreground job.
You can use the fg command to bring a background or suspended job to the foreground, and the bg command to resume a stopped job in the background.
For example:
fg %1 # bring job 1 to the foreground bg %2 # resume job 2 in the background