How do I run multiple background commands in bash in a single line?

Question

I normally run multiple commands with something like this:

sleep 2 && sleep 3

or

sleep 2 ; sleep 3

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Answer 1

The answers above use parentheses. Bash also can use braces for a similar purpose:

{ sleep 2 && sleep 3; } &

Note that the braces are more picky about syntax--the space after {, the space before }, and the final semicolon are required. In some situations the braces are more efficient because they don't fork a new subshell. In this case I don't know if it makes a difference.