I almost automatically open a terminal window and run sqlplus or ssh to a window. Then run some job which is going to take 12-24 hours to run. Then 2 hours into it want to take my laptop upstairs to be with the family... but can't as disconnecting the laptop from the docking station will halt the sqlplus or ssh connection, as it transfers over to wireless.


I'm trying to use vnc more for long running jobs... but it feels awkward. Not to mention I loose real estate because I've got so many cascading windows.


Any one have any suggestions on how to start a sqlplus or ssh session on a remote machine but attach the console to a terminal session? That way if I get disconnected I just re-attach to that session?

It sounds like you want to use GNU screen. screen is technically a window manager, that you can attach and detach a terminal whenever you wish.

For example, you could start a job running through screen on the remote server, detach your terminal, and then reconnect at a later time (from a different machine entirely, if you wish).

if you want to run an application on machine B from machine A and what the application to continue to run on machine A if the connection is dropped or machine A is turn off, then at the pompt on machine B do:

% nohup application > /dev/null &