If you want to run a process in the background simply put an ampersand (&) on the end of the line.

  dlink@viddev1> find / -name "*bojangles*"> $HOME/bojangles.lst 2>/dev/null &
  [3] 6569

To see what's going on you can use jobs:

  dlink@viddev1> jobs
  [2]-  Running  emacs -T "E $HOSTNAME" . &
  [3]+  Running  find / -name "bojangles">$HOME/bojangles.lst 2>/dev/null 

What if you ran something in the foreground but really wanted to run it in the background?:

  dlink@viddev1> xclock -update 1
  []

xclock fires up, assuming you are in X Windows.

Now the cursor is just sitting there - You can no longer use this shell to enter more commands.

Bummer

1.) You can quit xclock and the shell will resume, or

2.) You can break out of it with CTRL-c. This kills xclock and the shell will resume, or

3.) You can suspend xclock with CTRL-z. Then send it into the background with bg. Xclock continues to run and the shell will resume:

  dlink@viddev1> xclock -update 1
  CTRL-z
  [4]+  Stopped                 xclock -update 1
  dlink@viddev1> bg
  [4]+ xclock -update 1 &
  dlink@viddev1> 

You can bring it back to the foreground again with fg:

  dlink@viddev1> fg
  xclock -update 1