I am using i3-wm on Linux, and I am trying to imitate the behaviour of a program launcher. I already know about the "exec" command, which seems to work as expected for non-graphical commands.
For example, if I type in a terminal:
exec sudo ls -aR
I will get a list of all folders and files of the current directory. When the command exits, the terminal disappears.
But if I type instead in a terminal:
exec chromium-browser
I will end up with two windows: one being chromium; the other one being the terminal that launched chromium, now used by chromium to print debug info.
How can I start i.e. chromium-browser from a terminal and keep it alive while hiding or killing the terminal that launched it?
I found the answer. I had to start a graphical application in background ("&") and then "disown" it, like that:
chromium-browser & disown
In my case, I have to kill the terminal after doing so:
chromium-browser & disown && exit
Note the use of "&&" instead of ";". If disowning no job, then not exiting.
By the way, in my case, I found that making an alias x having disown && exit as value could come in handy. If I want to start a graphical application from the terminal, then this is how I do it:
chromium-browser &x
I just thought mentioning this could maybe help someone else.