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up vote 2 down vote favorite

I would like to execute multiple commands in bash, but have some of them executed in the background. The best way to explain this is using the following command which does not work...

for@barpc:~> (sleep 30;command1;command2 param ) & ; anotherCommand

I guess this could be taken as two questions:

  1. How to terminate the & in a command?
  2. What would be a better way of going about this?

Other details if they matter:

  • Opensuse 13.2
  • gnome-shell
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2 Answers 2

up vote 3 down vote accepted

You should try 

(sleep 5; ls) &  echo "Now"

This works as you wish it to.

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1  
Wow, that is so simple as to have been obvious. Thanks! –  pcnate 20 hours ago
    
Be aware that by doing this you've added an unnecessary sub-shell that will prevent you from waiting for the background job to finish if you ever need to. –  Darkhogg 13 hours ago
up vote 4 down vote

All you need to do is remove the ;. & acts as a command separator by itself, so adding ; after that is invalid.

(sleep 30; command1; command2 param ) & anotherCommand

(The spaces after semicolons aren't needed, I just find it easier to read this way. This is one of the few spots where spaces are optional in shell syntax -- most places, they're either required or forbidden.)

As for better ways of doing this... that really depends on exactly what you're trying to do. We'd need more info to make better suggestions.

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Please, please upvote this, it explains why OP's code didn't work instead of blindly throwing brackets hoping it will. –  Darkhogg 13 hours ago

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