Checking background jobs from another session


 
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# 1  
Old 10-12-2005
Question Checking background jobs from another session

Ok, so I'm comfortable backgrounding jobs in the shell, starting and stopping them, and bringing them to the fg and bg. What I can't figure out is how to monitor those background jobs from another shell (remote, or local).

Example:
- On a local console for MYHOST, I su to root
- I then update my /src via cvs and background the job with a '&'
- I connect via ssh to MYHOST from a different machine and su to root
- I type 'jobs', but no bg jobs show up

My original impression was that since 'root' backgrounded the jobs, I could just log in as root again, and check the job status. This doesn't work. I'm guessing that since I am connected under a 2nd session, the background jobs only apply to the session that started them, not the user who started them. How can I remotely check on these jobs?

Additionally, and sort of off topic, why if I su to root, then type 'who' does root not show up? The user I logged in as shows up, but not root. When I su to root, is that not running a login shell? Is that why?

Thanks for any feedback!
# 2  
Old 10-12-2005
Only the parent shell can see or manipulate background processes.
# 3  
Old 10-12-2005
Yeah, that is what I figured.

That being said, there must be some way to send a job to another session that you can manage remotely. Using screen, or somehow exporting the session in some way must allow for this capability. I can't imagine that unix, with all its power, there would be no way for a sysadmin to start a job at a terminal, then log in from home later on to check the status. I guess you could setup some cron job, but that is not what I want.

Another example:
I want to ssh from home to my work machine, then start a long job (recompile kernel, for example), then exit my session.
I then want to ssh back in at a later time, and see if the job has finished.
There must be someway to do this!
# 4  
Old 10-12-2005
Answer?

Ok, it seems I may have figured it out, but please feel free to inform me if I am incorrect.

If I log in via ssh to a remote machine, I can detach a session via screen (screen -S sessionname), then start a job/task, then detach the session via control-a control-d.
I can then log out and and the process keeps running. I can bring the job back to the forground as log as i log back in as the user who I detached the session from, then type screen -r.

Does this sound right?
 
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