wait

Wait for a process to complete before returning.

Description

The wait command is used to wait for a command to finish before returning to the terminal. This command is commonly used in shell scripting to ensure a specified command has completed before proceeding with subsequent tasks. When waiting for a job, a percent sign "%" must precede the job identifier.

Syntax

wait (parameter)

Parameters

Process or job identifier: Specifies the process ID or job number.

Examples

Use the wait command to wait for job number 1 to complete before returning:

Run a sleep process in the background:

sleep 10s &
[1] 27156

Specify the job number:

wait %1       # Wait for job number 1 to complete
[1]+  Done                    sleep 10s

Specify the process ID:

wait 27156
[1]+  Done                    sleep 10s

Output commands for currently existing job numbers:

jobs