wiki.bash-hackers.org/commands/builtin/wait.md
2023-04-15 23:53:05 +12:00

1.6 KiB

====== 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 =====