Can a Bourn Shell Script put itself in the background?

[Barry Byrne]

> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org 
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of 
> Martin McCormick

> I tried 
> 
> bg $$
> 
> but $$ is the current process invoked just as $! is the process
> of a backgrounded process started by that shell.
> 
> 	So, can I make a shell script background itself after
> starting?
> 
> Right now, I remind my coworkers to append the & after the
> script name. the bg command expects a job number, not a process
> ID.

Martin,

If you mean you'd like to be able to put a script that is already running
into the background, then you could press CTRL-Z to suspend the process.
Then running 'jobs' will list the job id. Then 'bg jobnumber' (probably 1)
should put it into the background.

Cheers,

Barry