Question
Does disown prevent SIGHUP termination of background jobs in zsh?
Zo Atlas
0 reputation · 29 Jul 2025, 06:28 UTC
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0 reputation · 29 Jul 2025, 06:28 UTC
Zsh's job control system manages background and suspended processes through the jobs builtin, fg, bg, and disown commands. When a terminal session ends, the shell typically sends SIGHUP to all jobs in its job table, which can terminate background processes unexpectedly. The disown builtin removes jobs from this table, theoretically protecting them from SIGHUP signals.
However, the exact mechanism and reliability of this protection varies depending on shell configuration, terminal emulator behavior, and whether the job was started with nohup or other mechanisms. Documentation exists for disown's purpose, but practical verification across different environments is needed to confirm it consistently prevents termination.
What specific conditions determine whether disowned jobs survive terminal closure? Does the shell's $HISTFILE setting or job control mode affect SIGHUP delivery to disowned processes? Which terminal emulators or session managers properly respect disown's intent?
Yes, the `disown` builtin in zsh is designed to prevent SIGHUP termination of a background job when the controlling terminal session ends, by removing the job from zsh's internal job table.
The likely explanation is that by removing the job from the job table, zsh does not iterate over it when sending SIGHUP upon session termination. The confirmed fact is that `disown` achieves this removal from the shell's management structure.
zshdisown %.To confirm reliability across your specific setup, please confirm if the job continues to run when checked via an external process monitor (e.g., ps) after exiting the shell.
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