Without the -f option, the MonAMI application (monamid) will assume it is running in a production environment and will detach itself from the terminal. The init scripts for starting MonAMI also make this assumption, and run monamid without the -f option.

When first using MonAMI, or when investigating a new configuration, it is often easier to understand any problems if the application does not detach from the terminal and continues to display output to the terminal. When experimenting, it is recommended to run MonAMI with the -f (foreground) and -v (verbose) command-line options. As with other command-line options these can be combined, so to test-run MonAMI, one can use the following: /usr/bin/monamid -fv.