How to Resume a Suspended Process in Terminal on Unix/Mac

Learn how to easily resume a suspended (tty input) process in your Unix or Mac terminal with simple commands.
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How to Resume a Suspended Process in Terminal on Unix/Mac

When working in the Unix or Mac terminal, you may find yourself in a situation where a background process gets suspended. This often happens if the process requires user input and the terminal is not currently attached to it. If you’ve faced the message "suspended (tty input)", don’t worry! In this post, we will explore how to effectively resume such a suspended process.

What Causes a Process to Suspend?

Before diving into the solution, let’s clarify what happens when a process is suspended. In most cases, if a command or script is running and requires user input (like confirmation), the terminal will pause the execution until the input is provided. When this happens in the background, the process gets suspended instead of terminating, leading to the message you see in the terminal.

How to Resume a Suspended Process

Resuming a suspended process involves a few straightforward commands. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you through the process.

Step 1: List Suspended Jobs

First, you need to identify the suspended jobs. Use the following command:

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This command will display a list of jobs you have running or suspended in that terminal session. The output might look something like this:

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Step 2: Bring a Job to the Foreground

To resume a suspended job and bring it back to the foreground (where you can interact with it), use the fg command. If you only have one suspended job, simply typing:

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will suffice. If you have multiple jobs, you can specify which job to resume by using its ID from the jobs output like so:

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Replace ID with the actual job number, e.g., fg %1.

Step 3: Resume Without Bringing to Foreground

If you'd prefer to resume the job without bringing it to the foreground, you can use the kill -CONT command followed by the job's process ID (PID). For instance:

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Replace JOBID with the actual ID of the process, which can be found in the jobs list output.

Step 4: Move Job to Background

If you want to resume the job without taking it out of the background, you can use the bg command. This command allows you to resume the last suspended job by typing:

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Alternatively, if you want to specify which job to resume in the background:

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Recap of Commands

Here’s a quick recap of the commands you might use to manage suspended jobs:

List suspended jobs: jobs

Bring job to foreground: fg or fg %ID

Resume job without foregrounding: kill -CONT JOBID

Move job to background: bg or bg %ID

Conclusion

Resuming a suspended process in the Unix or Mac terminal might seem daunting at first, but with these commands, you can easily manage your jobs. Whether you choose to bring it to the foreground, resume it in the background, or simply continue its execution without interaction, you have the power to control your terminal processes effectively.

By familiarizing yourself with these commands, you’ll streamline your workflow and reduce frustrations caused by unexpected process suspensions.

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