Thread: Programs launched from C don't stay open after launcher closes

I'd like to be able to launch a program from this C program and have that launched program stay open after this C program closes.

I've tried various solutions, and none seem to do the above. Here is some code that at least shows what's going on, and I know it doesn't work, but I wanted to at least put some effort code in here that might help.

Code:

#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main () {

    pid_t pid = -1;

    printf("\nParent is forking a child.");

    pid = fork();

    if(pid < 0){

        perror("fork");
        exit(1);

    }else if(pid == 0){

        printf("Starting child process...\n");
        printf("If I were to press ctrl-c here, both programs would close, but I want the launched program to stay open.\n");

        execlp("/usr/bin/xterm", "xterm", "-e", "top", NULL);

        // Code will never reach this point

    }else{

        printf("Parent is waiting for child id %d to complete...\n", pid);

        // Wait for procress to complete
        wait(NULL);

        printf("The child process is complete and has terminated!\nBut this program had to stay open the entire time.");
    }

    printf("Parent is now exiting...\n");

    return 0;
}