From: Stephen Bannasch <stephen.bannasch@...>
Date: 2007-09-29T13:55:21+09:00
Subject: [Q] how can I start a shell process and return immediately?

I want to start a Java program from a Ruby program and have the Java 
program run in another process and have control returned to my Ruby 
program as soon as the Java process starts up successfully.

I can do this from a shell by suffixing an '&':

   java -cp <classpath> <main_class>&

starts the Java program in a background process thread and returns 
control the shell.

When I try this from a Ruby program the program blocks until the Java 
program is terminated.