diff --git a/user/tb/interp.c b/user/tb/interp.c
index b461194..4a7469f 100644
--- a/user/tb/interp.c
+++ b/user/tb/interp.c
@@ -188,6 +188,17 @@ bool interp_runstring(char *string, InterpResult **res, bool logcmds, bool inter
     tz_classify(&tz);
     tz_expandspecial(&tz);
 
+    bool wait = true;
+
+    if (tz.tokens->str[0] == '&') {
+      Token *tk = tz.tokens;
+      LL_REMOVE(tz.tokens, tk);
+      ufree(tk->str);
+      ufree(tk);
+
+      wait = false;
+    }
+
     Token *cmdtk = tz.tokens;
     if (cmdtk->type == TOK_CMD) {
       ok = cmdtk->cmd(cmdtk->next);
@@ -217,15 +228,17 @@ bool interp_runstring(char *string, InterpResult **res, bool logcmds, bool inter
 
       proc_run(app);
 
-      while(proc_pollstate(app) != 4) {
-        if (interactive) {
-          int32_t key = dev_cmd(&ps2kbdev, DEV_PS2KBDEV_READCH, (void *)PID, 0, NULL);
-          if (key > 0 && (uint8_t)key == C('S')) {
-            proc_kill(app);
-            goto cleanup;
+      if (wait) {
+        while(proc_pollstate(app) != 4) {
+          if (interactive) {
+            int32_t key = dev_cmd(&ps2kbdev, DEV_PS2KBDEV_READCH, (void *)PID, 0, NULL);
+            if (key > 0 && (uint8_t)key == C('S')) {
+              proc_kill(app);
+              goto cleanup;
+            }
           }
+          schedrelease();
         }
-        schedrelease();
       }
 
       cleanup: {