bash-hackers-wiki/docs/commands/builtin/wait.md

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

Examples

Portability considerations

See also