I can’t believe I’ve used various unix systems for 20 years and have only now, via kuro5hin, discovered the joys of the powerful utility known as screen.
Screen provides the ability to run multiple terminal based applications, including connecting to remote systems, within one terminal window. More than that, the utility provides the ability to save state between sessions. This means a lengthy process can run and be monitored whilst moving between work and home, for example. While the need for such a tool is not as common as in the past, the process detachment facilities provided by screen should prove far superiour to using the tried and true “nohup” command.