I\'m working on a Linux machine through SSH (Putty). I need to leave a process running during the night, so I thought I could do that by starting the process in background (
i would also go for screen program (i know that some1 else answer was screen but this is a completion)
not only the fact that &, ctrl+z bg disown, nohup, etc. may give you a nasty surprise that when you logoff job will still be killed (i dunno why, but it did happened to me, and it didn't bother with it be cause i switched to use screen, but i guess anthonyrisinger solution as double forking would solve that), also screen have a major advantage over just back-grounding:
screen will background your process without losing interactive control to it
and btw, this is a question i would never ask in the first place :) ... i use screen from my beginning of doing anything in any unix ... i (almost) NEVER work in a unix/linux shell without starting screen first ... and i should stop now, or i'll start an endless presentation of what good screen is and what can do for ya ... look it up by yourself, it is worth it ;)