$!

PID of the most recently started background process.

Ubuntu Debian Arch Fedora CentOS SUSE Alpine macOS FreeBSD

Verified: 2026-05-12

Syntax

$command & echo $!

Examples

$sleep 60 & echo $!

$longjob & pid=$!

Typical use cases

Standard usage

$! --help

Note Often combined with wait or kill for job control.

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