How do I run multiple commands together in the background?

Question

I know I can run a program in the background using &.

command &

However, I want to run multiple commands, and cd into a different directory while they are running.
The multiple commands will still rely on the directory I was previously in.

I've tried the following, but it only runs the last command in the background:

command1 && command2 &

Doing this gives a parse error:

command1 & && command2 & 

It's important that command1 finishes before command2,
so I don't think the following would guarantee that:

 command1 &; command2 &;  

I'm not tied to any specific shell.

Solution

(command1; command2)& - should do it, works in bash.

This creates a subshell (the two parenthesis) and runs the whole subshell in the background.

Comments

[Admin]

@choroba Not just not needed, it's a syntax error (in bash and most other shells): there needs to be a command before ;

[Admin]

If you need to do that in a bash script, use the method suggested here: stackoverflow.com/a/62832235/1423806