How to manage jobs with Murex
Job control is a feature that allows users to manage and control multiple executions in a terminal session, it is particularly useful when working with simultaneous jobs as it provides users with the ability to start, stop, pause, resume, and manage the execution.
Murex is very similar to other shells, with the single particularity: builtins are not forked processes like in a traditional POSIX shell but rather virtual threads. This means that you cannot use the typical operating systems command ps to list Murex functions.
This is where fid-list (or its alias jobs) comes into play. The builtin is used to view all the functions and processes that are managed by the current session.
That includes:
fid-list is a builtin command)» jobs
PID State Background Process Parameters
4939 Executing true exec sleep 10000
4996 Executing true exec sleep 10000
5053 Stopped true exec sleep 10000
» fid-list
PID State Background Process Parameters
4939 Executing true exec sleep 10000
4996 Executing true exec sleep 10000
5053 Stopped true exec sleep 10000Now that we know how to list background jobs, let us review each control operation in more details
Users can easilly start a process in the background with the bg builtin. bg allows to continue working on other tasks while the process runs independently.
The builtin supports two modes:
» bg { sleep 5; out "Morning" }» jobs
PID State Background Process Parameters
4939 Executing true exec sleep 10000
4996 Executing true exec sleep 10000
5053 Stopped true exec sleep 10000
# Run PID 5053 in the background
# Note that `bg` is context aware, hit TAB to visually select the id
» bg 5053Users can bring a background job to the foreground, making it the active task and allowing interaction with it.
# start 3 background jobs
» bg { sleep 10000; out "Task 1" }
» bg { sleep 10000; out "Task 2" }
» bg { sleep 10000; out "Task 3" }
» jobs
PID State Background Process Parameters
4939 Executing true exec sleep 10000
4996 Executing true exec sleep 10000
5053 Executing true exec sleep 10000
# bring back one of them to the foreground, it will block on sleep
# Note that `fg` is context aware, hit TAB to visually select the function id
» fg 5053Users can suspend and pause the execution of a running job, which will temporarily halt its progress.
From an interactive session, press ctrl+z to suspend the currently running job in the foreground.
» sleep 10000; out "Task 1"
# Hit CTRL Z - terminal should allow new inputs
» jobs
PID State Background Process Parameters
4944 Executing true exec sleep 10000
# Note how the job has a `paused` state
# from there you can resume execution with either `fg` or `bg`Last but not least, users have the option to terminate or halt an execution. This action can be carried out interactively or through built-in functions.
When running an execution in the foreground from an interactive shell, simply press ctrl+c to terminate the process. This method is straightforward and efficient.
Alternatively, from a scripting perspective, there are two built-in functions that serve the same purpose: fid-kill
» bg { sleep 10000; out "Task 1" }
» jobs
PID State Background Process Parameters
4944 Executing true exec sleep 10000
» fid-kill 4944
Task 1bg): Run processes in the backgroundfid-list): Lists all running functions within the current Murex sessionjobs): Lists all running functions within the current Murex sessionexec): Runs an executablefexec): Execute a command or function, bypassing the usual order of precedence.fg): Sends a background process into the foregroundfid-kill): Terminate a running Murex functionThis document was generated from gen/user-guide/job-control_doc.yaml.
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