Macintosh Terminal Pocket Guide

Name

fg

Synopsis

fg [%jobnumber]

The built-in command fg brings a suspended or backgrounded job into the foreground. With no arguments, it selects a job, usually the most recently suspended or backgrounded one. To specify a particular job (as shown by the jobs command), supply the job number preceded by a percent sign:

➜ fg %2

A typical sequence of job control commands is:

➜ wc -l huge_file               Start a long job
^Z                              Suspend the job
[1]+  Stopped  wc -l huge_file
➜ bg                            Put wc into the background
[1]+ wc -l huge_file &
➜                                                       Run other commands...
➜ fg                              Bring wc into the foreground
wc -l huge_file
578394783 huge_file               The wc job finishes