why run a Linux shell command with &?

Posted by George2 on Super User See other posts from Super User or by George2
Published on 2010-06-15T10:16:33Z Indexed on 2010/06/15 10:23 UTC
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beginner

I am using Red Hat Linux Enterprise version 5. Sometimes I notice people run command with a couple of & options. For example, in the below command, there are two &-signs. What are the function of them? Are they always used together with nohup?

nohup foo.sh <parameters to specific the scripe> >& <log_file_name> &

thanks in advance, George

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