Open a new terminal like xterm, change prompt to something like: PS1=' $SHLVL $ '
Start a couple of bash subshells: 1 $ bash 2 $ bash 3 $ echo $$ 9371 Suspend the last one: 3 $ suspend [1]+ Stopped bash 2 $ echo $$ 9313 2 $ Make the suspended shell continue: 2 $ kill -CONT 9371 The parent gets killed 1 $ echo $$ 9034 1 $ Take a look at: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/379507/weird-terminating-background-bash-kills-the-parent