How to get 2 programs running?

January 12, 2015 1.1k views
aybrah
By:
aybrah

I'm really lost here. Created ubuntu droplet only, how would I download www.steampowered.com client and another program and run it 24/7 just to idle hours?

Was told something completely different, guess he wanted referral code bonus...

Just push me in the right direction, I don't want to be spoon fed the whole time. Since I'm here I may as well learn.

At the moment I'm trying to add VNC desktop but I'll want to learn how to do everything by code as it'll take less ram. I'm someone who literally came here without any knowledge whatsoever but I'm not going to quit now. xD

1 comment
  • ryanpq MOD January 12, 2015

    If you have two command line programs that block the terminal and you want to run both in the background while being able to switch back to them as needed you can accomplish this using screen.

    How to Install and Use Screen on an Ubuntu Cloud Server
    by Justin Ellingwood
    In this article, we will discuss how to install and use "screen", a tool that allows you to manage multiple shell sessions inside a single terminal. The screen program is very useful for multi-tasking in an ssh environment, due to its ability to resume terminal sessions and perform multiple-concurrent tasks.
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1 Answer
gndo January 12, 2015

Rather than trigger on 'idle', there is a command called nice that can request the kernel scheduler to give the named program a lower priority. This can be used in scripts as well as the command line.

Program daemons are usually run in the background, and there are a few typical ways they are started:

  1. Through a distribution specific or program specific startup command
  2. Using scripts in the /etc/rc.* directories
  3. By cronjob
  4. System programs that are triggered by system events that they have subscribed to.

Have fun learning these things.

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