run 2 programs at the same time

schneidz · 08-26-2006, 06:28 PM

i would like to run two things at the same time with 1 command:

Code:

cat hello.iso; play hello.wav

would cat and then play.

i want it to play hello.wav while it is printing hello.iso to the screen.

does anyone have a quick solution?

thanks

ph0b0s · 08-26-2006, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schneidz

i would like to run two things at the same time with 1 command:

Code:

cat hello.iso; play hello.wav

would cat and then play.

i want it to play hello.wav while it is printing hello.iso to the screen.

does anyone have a quick solution?

thanks

cat hello.iso & play hello.wav

sundialsvcs · 08-26-2006, 06:43 PM

Unix shells make it very easy to "do several things at one time." Append a '&' after any command and it becomes a "background job" of sorts: the shell "spawns" a child-task to do the command in the background. Commands such as fg and bg are useful; see info bash.

One of the basic principles in Unix environments is that you can "string together" simple commands to do complex things.

schneidz · 08-26-2006, 07:01 PM

thanks it works.

can someone tell me what this means:

Code:

cat hello.iso && play hello.wav

seems to be the same thing as:

Code:

cat hello.iso; play hello.wav

jlinkels · 08-26-2006, 08:17 PM

Hey, in Unix, adding one "&" somwhere can mean the difference between solving a NxN matrix equation and formatting your hard disk.

command1 && command2 means "if the exit code of command1 == 0 proceed with command2(succesful program termination)

It is in so far correct that it does the same as
command1; command2
provided command1 terminated succesfully

Try to cat a non existing file and feel the difference

jlinkels

schneidz · 08-29-2006, 11:04 AM

continued on: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...51#post2400451