In order to use certain MIDI apps, I need to start qjackctl and qsynth first. When I try a command string like “qjackctl && qsynth && vkeybd”, then only qjackctl opens. Frustrated, I close qjackctl, and that’s when qsynth opens, and then when I close it, finally vkeybd opens. At this point vkeybd won’t make a sound, because qsynth and jack aren’t running! Is there a way to open all 3 with a single command, so I can just edit the menu entry for vkeybd (and rosegarden and qtractor) accordingly?
That is as expected. && (in a bash command line) means that the next command is executed when the earlier command exists normally (return code 0). When it exits abnormally, the next command will not be executed at all.
I think you want
command1 &
command2 &
command3 &
That will start a command and then loosen it from the bash session to run in the background. Then , while command 1 is still running (if it takes time enough of course), command to will start and go to the background, etc.
I can understand that you do not know all features of bash (same here), but when you want to use one, you could at least look that one up in
Thank you Henk, the un-doubled ampersand was just what I needed. I felt foolish that I couldn’t find the answer with help from google, so thanks also for the timely reminder that we also have off-line resources available. -GEF