Talk:Job control (Unix)

Job ID

"A job ID is a token used to identify jobs to shell builtins. Job IDs begin with the % character; %n identifies job n, while %% identifies the current job."

I'm using bash. When e.g. using the jobs command, I get a list of jobs, but there are no literal percentage characters. Could someone clarify in which situations percentage characters are visible to identify jobs? Thanks, --Abdull (talk) 23:09, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

An example could be shorter then verbal description:

$ sleep 50 &
[1] 71698
$ fg %1
sleep 50    # no shell prompt seen, waiting for sleep to complete 
^Z
[1]+  Stopped                 sleep 50
$ bg %1
[1]+ sleep 50 &
$

141.226.89.53 (talk) 03:10, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

FWIW and not wishing to offend, I find the example neither shorter nor clearer than a verbal description. That said, I think this article would benefit from examples ... similar to this. Stevebroshar (talk) 12:45, 3 August 2025 (UTC)

A job ID is a number. The % prefix is used to reference a job by ID. IDK why the syntax is that way. Seems that the intent of "fg 1" is clear enough. But, for some reason, the job control commands require the % prefix. The "jobs" command shows ID values without the %; although in brackets ... for whatever reason. Stevebroshar (talk) 12:43, 3 August 2025 (UTC)