Linux wait command
Updated: 05/04/2019 by Computer Hope
On Unix-like operating systems, wait is a shell command that waits for a given process to complete and then returns its exit status.
This page covers the bash built-in version of wait.
Syntax
wait [pid] [jobid]
Description
wait waits for the process identified by process ID pid (or the job specified by job ID jobid), and reports its termination status. If an ID is not given, wait waits for all currently active child processes, and the return status is zero. If the ID is a job specification, wait waits for all processes in the job's pipeline.
| pid | The unsigned decimal integer process ID of a command, for which the utility is to wait for the termination. |
| jobid | A job control job ID that identifies a background process group to wait for. The job control job ID notation is applicable only for invocations of wait in the current shell execution environment, and only on systems supporting the job control option. |
Examples
wait 2017
Wait for process 2017 to terminate, and return its exit status.
Related commands
csh — The C shell command interpreter.
jobs — List the status of all running jobs.
ksh — The Korn shell command interpreter.
sh — The Bourne shell command interpreter.