command line - The "+" and "-" signs next to the job number

The bash man page says

In output pertaining to jobs (e.g., the output of the jobs command), the current job is always flagged with a +, and the pre‐ vious job with a -. A single % (with no accompanying job specifica‐ tion) also refers to the current job.

In my bellow series of commands, after yes 2 > /dev/null & , I expected job [2] to be the current job not job[1].

Also at the end of the command yes 3 > /dev/null & I was expecting the jobs command output to be like this:

[1] Stopped
[2]- Running
[3]+ Running

what am I missing ?

$ yes 1 > /dev/null
^Z
[1]+  Stopped                 yes 1 > /dev/null
$ jobs
[1]+  Stopped                 yes 1 > /dev/null
$ yes 2 > /dev/null &
[2] 3082
$ jobs
[1]+  Stopped                 yes 1 > /dev/null
[2]-  Running                 yes 2 > /dev/null &
$ yes 3 > /dev/null &
[3] 3116
$ jobs
[1]+  Stopped                 yes 1 > /dev/null
[2]   Running                 yes 2 > /dev/null &
[3]-  Running                 yes 3 > /dev/null &

Answer

From the same man page:

[…] the current job, which is the last job stopped while it was in the foreground or started in the background.

It's somewhat ambiguous. You may understand it as:

1. Take all "jobs stopped while they was in the foreground or started in the background"…


2. …then choose "the last".

But it's rather:

1. Take "the last job stopped while it was in the foreground";


2. but in case there's no such job, take "the last job started in the background".