The wait builtin command¶
Synopsis¶
wait [-f] [-n] [-p VARNAME] [ID...]
Description¶
The wait
builtin command is used to wait for job completion and return exit status.
- if
ID
is a job specification, it waits for all processes in the pipeline of this job - waits for a specific job (asynchronous command) and report its exit status if one or more
ID
is given - waits for all running jobs (asynchronous commands)
- waits for "the next" job (
-n
option) - waits for termination instead of status change (
-f
option)
ID
may be an operating system process identifier or a shell job specification.
Options¶
Option | Description |
---|---|
-n | Waits for "the next" child to exit (as opposed to "all children" without this option). Accepts a list of IDs (jobs) |
-f | Waits for the termination of the given ID (instead of waiting for a status change only) |
-p VARNAME | When waiting for a list (-n) or all jobs, writes the job ID to the job that was actually terminated into the variable VARNAME |
Return status¶
The return status is the return status of the job waited for, or
Status | Reason |
---|---|
0 | waited for all jobs in shell's job list |
1 | the given ID is not a valid job or process ID |