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The new user on the SGI's usually runs a job at the prompt, and then waits for it to be completed before running something else. Did you notice that when you run a program, you can't type anything else in that window? Well, here's an easy way out of that. Actually there are at least two ways to run background jobs. Here are some examples of both followed by an explanation.
% xterm
This command will open an xterm window. Notice that you cannot use the old window until you shut down the new window. Now try this instead
% xterm &
Notice how the use of the '&' symbol allowed you to open another
window and also use the first window at the same time. What if you forgot
to type the '&' initially? Is it possible to still run the new window
as a separate process? The answer is yes! Just hit ctrl-z (hold down the
ctrl and z keys at the same time). This suspends the job. You can now put
the job in the background by typing 'bg'.
% xterm ctrl z Suspended % bg [1] xterm &This is very useful when you want to run your fortran program interactively for a while and then run it in the background. To bring a job back to the foreground use the fg command. You can have any number of jobs in the background. Take a look at the section on Compiling, Linking and Executing for more information.