Linux jobs command (list background processes) [Basic Guide]

The jobs Command in Linux lists processes that are running in the background. If a task number is provided the command will return information relevant only to the task in question.

The task number is provided when the process is placed in the background.

The most common options are:

• -l Lists the PID of the background processes.
• -r List only running Jobs
• -s List only stopped Jobs

In this example, find is stopped. Since we use the -l option, jobs also provides the PID 27159 of the find program:

$ jobs -l 
[1] + 27159 Stopped find/-iname? a* 2> /dev/null

The job number can be used as a parameter in the bg and fg commands, especially if there is more than one job in task management.

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Uirá Endy Ribeiro

Uirá Endy Ribeiro is a Software Developer and Cloud Computing Architect with a 23-year career. He has master's degrees in computer science and fifteen IT certifications and is the author of 11 books recognized in the IT world market. He is also Director at Universidade Salgado de Oliveira and Director of the Linux Professional Institute - LPI Director's Board.