Mac Terminal: How to get back to the command line?

Question

I'm on a Mac OS X 10.6.7.

I started a node.js script, which starts an HTTP server.

The problem is that I lost the command line, it looks like this:

$me cd directory
$me node test.js
Message from test.js: Server is running on localhost
..|

| = indicates the caret

It's possible to write but I'm unable to run any code, it's like writing a plain string, how can I get back to the commmand line?

Sorry I'm really noob in terminal :)

Answer 1

Press Ctrl+C to terminate the program and get back to the shell prompt.

If you want a program to run in the background and return you to a shell prompt, append an ampersand (&) to the end of the command. For example:

node test.js &

Answer 2

Just open a new tab by pressing Cmd-T, or a new window (using Cmd-N). You want to get warning/error messages that program sends to your terminal.

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You can also use screen to get multiple... er... terminals in a single tab/window.

Press Ctrl-A Ctrl-C to create a new terminal, Ctrl-A Ctrl-N or Ctrl-A Ctrl-P (repeatedly) to go to the next and previous terminals. Type exit in all screen terminals to leave.

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Regarding node: Check the documentation -- it should be possible to start it as a background server.