# run background job in the shell or script module **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 16, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/run-background-job-in-the-shell-or-script-module/13692 "2013-10-16T13:54:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shirou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@shirou](https://forum.ansible.com/u/shirou)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/run-background-job-in-the-shell-or-script-module/13692/1 "2013-10-16T13:54:22Z")
Hi all, I want to launch a script as a background job by using "&". First, I try the shell module but it doesn't work (means run as a foreground job). ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/run-background-job-in-the-shell-or-script-module/13692/2 "2013-10-16T19:51:06Z")
Please read about async mode here: [http://www.ansibleworks.com/docs/playbooks\_async.html](http://www.ansibleworks.com/docs/playbooks_async.html) ---
**Author:** ![shirou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@shirou](https://forum.ansible.com/u/shirou)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/run-background-job-in-the-shell-or-script-module/13692/3 "2013-10-17T15:28:50Z")
it works. Thank you! 2013/10/17 4:51 “Michael DeHaan” \<[michael@ansibleworks.com](mailto:michael@ansibleworks.com)\>: ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Slinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Michael\_Slinn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Slinn)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/run-background-job-in-the-shell-or-script-module/13692/4 "2013-11-25T18:38:33Z")
I have a similar problem, and I read the docs, but I must be not seeing something obvious. Here is a fragment of a yaml file ([the entire file is here](https://github.com/mslinn/ansible-ec2-play/blob/master/yaml/launch.yaml)): - name: Launch project command: (sleep 2; /bin/echo “Of course your realize that this means war” \> $home/nohup.out) async: 15 poll: 0 There is no output from that step when run with -vv. What am I missing? ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/run-background-job-in-the-shell-or-script-module/13692/5 "2013-11-26T00:57:03Z")
async: 15 will set a “time to live” for 15 seconds to the task. Poll: 0 means “fire and forget, I don’t want any output”. Sounds like you might want to do poll: 5 or so. It also sounds like your project might benefit from a service init script, and then you can just use the service module. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Slinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Michael\_Slinn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Slinn)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/run-background-job-in-the-shell-or-script-module/13692/6 "2013-11-26T00:57:34Z")
I just want to kick off a background process. I don’t want any output. I thought that [Service](http://www.ansibleworks.com/docs/modules.html#service) only pertained to system services. Can I use them for background tasks also? Thanks, Mike ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/run-background-job-in-the-shell-or-script-module/13692/7 "2013-11-26T01:08:21Z")
So contradictory statements: “There is no output from that step when run with -vv. What am I missing?” “I just want to kick off a background process. I don’t want any output.” Which do you want and what are you getting versus what you are expecting? “I thought that [Service](http://www.ansibleworks.com/docs/modules.html#service) only pertained to system services. Can I use them for background tasks also?” Yes, you can write system init scripts to do basically anything. You might also be interested in something like supervisor, which we also have a module for. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Slinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Michael\_Slinn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Slinn)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 2:19am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/run-background-job-in-the-shell-or-script-module/13692/8 "2013-11-26T02:19:41Z")
I defined a system service and it works. Thank you!