%
is the
"current" stopped or background job, but
not
always the
last
one.
If you've stopped any jobs, the current job is the most recently stopped
job.
Otherwise, it's the most recent background job.
For example, try stopping your editor (like
vi
), then putting
another job in the background:
sleep
|
%
vi afile
[CTRL-z]
Stopped
%
sleep 1000 &
[2] 12345
%
fg
|
and notice that the
fg
brings your editor to the foreground.