Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

dsulli99 · 2013-12-26 18:14:42

Hi,

I have what is perhaps a dumb question. I am using XMonad as a window manager and I have the launching of some applications bound to aliases. For example, firefox="firefox &". This will launch firefox in the foreground and allow me to continue using the xterm.

Up until maybe a week or two ago, if I typed "exit" in that xterm, the xterm would quit and firefox would continue running in the foreground. Now, when I type "exit" the terminal will hang until I quit firefox. Does anybody have a clue as to why this would actually occur? The firefox process has clearly been launched into the background using UNIX job control, as I can interact with the terminal. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question :-)

Dan

Last edited by dsulli99 (2013-12-27 20:27:25)

alphaniner · 2013-12-26 18:25:42

My understanding is that processes run with background processes are still tied to the terminal. So you shouldn't be able to close the terminal with background processes still running. Or, as is the case for me with xfce4-terminal, closing the terminal closes the background process. IOW, the behaviour you used to see seems like the oddity to me.

Edit: Should really read sentences after I change them to ensure they still make sense...

Last edited by alphaniner (2013-12-26 19:05:27)

karol · 2013-12-26 18:28:48

Still works for me. Have you tried just typing 'firefox &' instead of using the alias?
If you want a launcher, try e.g. dmenu: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xm … plications

jasonwryan · 2013-12-26 19:05:02

Please edit your first post and choose a title that more accurately reflects your issue: this will be more useful for anyone else searching on the same topic:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … ow_to_Post

Stebalien · 2013-12-26 19:19:03

I would use:

nohup firefox >/dev/null & disown

-- edit: Actually, the following would probably work better:

setsid firefox

Last edited by Stebalien (2013-12-26 19:24:14)

dsulli99 · 2013-12-27 20:32:06

karol wrote:

Still works for me. Have you tried just typing 'firefox &' instead of using the alias?
Yep. Still hangs while firefox is in the foreground.
If you want a launcher, try e.g. dmenu: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xm … plications

Thank you for the suggestion. I'd still like to get this working with xterm, though :-)

dsulli99 · 2013-12-27 20:32:55

jasonwryan wrote:

Please edit your first post and choose a title that more accurately reflects your issue: this will be more useful for anyone else searching on the same topic:

Done. Sorry about that.

dodo3773 · 2013-12-27 20:38:00

I do similar to Stebalien when I want this behavior:

firefox & disown

Just have to disown process and then you won't have running jobs in the background.

dsulli99 · 2013-12-27 20:45:20

This works thank you :-)

nohup firefox >/dev/null & disown

This does not work

setsid firefox

dsulli99 · 2013-12-27 20:46:20

This does not work, thank you for your reply, though.

firefox & disown

Arch Linux

#1 2013-12-26 18:14:42

Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

#2 2013-12-26 18:25:42

Re: Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

#3 2013-12-26 18:28:48

Re: Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

#4 2013-12-26 19:05:02

Re: Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

#5 2013-12-26 19:19:03

Re: Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

#6 2013-12-27 20:32:06

Re: Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

#7 2013-12-27 20:32:55

Re: Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

#8 2013-12-27 20:38:00

Re: Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

#9 2013-12-27 20:45:20

Re: Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

#10 2013-12-27 20:46:20

Re: Cannot quit xterm when process is running in background

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