Question

A python script prints information to screen and then should go to background.

How to do that from within the script itself?

Answer 1

Update: To properly daemonize your process, use daemonize.

Original answer: Since the shell is waiting for your process to finish, the main process must terminate. You can use os.fork() to fork off a child process and sys.exit() from the parent process:

import os
import sys

if os.fork():
    sys.exit()
# Child code goes here