tomp@cncbox:~/emc2.1-alpha0$ bin/pyvcp -c fred m5i20-test2-di.xml &
[1] 15502
tomp@cncbox:~/emc2.1-alpha0$ pyVCP: Creating widgets from m5i20-test2-di.xml ... Done.
 
<no prompt :)

==============================================

It does not take it back it is just telling you that it has finished.
Try executing the program with && echo "Finished"  added to the end of the command. This will print Finished if the program executes and return correctly.

ie:-

tomp@cncbox:~/emc2.1-alpha0$ bin/pyvcp -c fred m5i20-test2-di.xml && echo "Finished"

Reagrds
Paragon36