UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all.
I am running a C++ program on UNIX which needs days to finish but my dial-up connection disconnects after 4 hours. Is there any way for the program to keep running until it finishes after I log out?

I'm not sure what you need. If your connection terminates, then it's a problem with your dialup.

Otherwise try nohup

Code:

nohup /path/to/my/program parm1 &

This runs in the background and will not disconnect when you logout

It could be a limit imposed by the ISP. I use Freeserve here in the UK, and it cuts you off after 2 hours, no questions (even though I have "unlimited unmetered access" pfffftttt . A right pain in the proverbial, to be polite.

Cheers
ZB

Yes, it's a time limit imposed by British Telecom.
Nohup, worked. Thanks a lot Jim.
However, when I type "jobs" to see which processes are running in the background I don't get any jobs at all, although I know my program is still running, as the output file is steadily increasing. As a result I can't stop it if I want to. Does anyone know why this is happening?

If you mean you can't find the process after you get disconnected and come back, I believe it's because the process is no longer yours. When you hang up, I think root becomes the parent to your process. I'm not sure if you can regain control of that process, but you can probably look for it by:

ps -aef | grep <process_name>

Thank you, that works. When I type it I get
[username] 4159 1 14 [time started] ? 1260:50 [process]
Does anyone know how to stop this process?