disown

Additional Notes

disown removes one or more background jobs from the current shell's job table so they are not sent a SIGHUP when the shell exits. It lets a long-running job keep going after you log out, much like nohup but applied later.

Jobs are referenced by number (such as %1) or by name. Run jobs first to see the current list.

Syntax

disown [options] [job ...]

Parameters

• options: Flags that choose which jobs or what happens on logout.
• job: Job spec such as %1, %2, or %name; omit to use the current job.

Common Options

• -a, --all: Act on all jobs.
• -r, --running: Act only on running jobs.
• -h: Mark jobs so they keep getting SIGHUP on logout (but stay in the table).
• -r with no -h: Default behavior removes the jobs from the table.

Examples

sleep 600 &
disown
jobs

Start a background job, remove it from the table, and confirm it is gone.

long-task.sh &
disown %1
exit

Let long-task.sh survive shell logout.

disown -a

Remove every job from the table at once.

disown -a -h

Keep all jobs in the table but stop SIGHUP from killing them on exit.

make &
disown -h %1

Mark the make job to ignore hangup signals.

Practical Notes

• Use jobs to list job numbers before disown.
• disown without -h removes the job; with -h it stays listed but ignores SIGHUP.
• For jobs you start knowingly, nohup command & is often simpler than disown.
• A disowned job is still a child until it exits; closing the terminal no longer kills it via hangup.
• Prefer screen or tmux when you also want to reattach and watch the job later.