HxHippy

sleep

Delay for a specified amount of time

command Shell UtilitiesScriptingSystem Utilities

Overview

Pauses execution for an amount of time specified. The duration may be a floating-point number or an integer, followed by an optional unit suffix. If multiple NUMBER[SUFFIX] arguments are given, their sum is used.

Syntax

sleep NUMBER[SUFFIX]... [--help] [--version]

Common Options

NUMBER

A non-negative integer or floating-point number representing the duration.

s (default)

Suffix for seconds.

m

Suffix for minutes.

h

Suffix for hours.

d

Suffix for days.

--help

Display help text and exit.

--version

Output version information and exit.

Examples

$ sleep 5

Pause for 5 seconds (default unit).

$ sleep 0.5

Pause for half a second.

$ sleep 3m

Pause for 3 minutes.

$ sleep 1h 30m 15s

Pause for 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 15 seconds (durations are summed).

$ echo "Task starting..."; sleep 10; echo "Task finished."

Used in a script to wait for 10 seconds between two actions.

Related Commands

awk

Pattern scanning and processing language

sed

Stream editor for filtering and transforming text

curl

Transfer data from or to a server

jobs

List active jobs

history

Display command history

fg

Bring a job to the foreground

sleepdelaypausewaitscripttimeduration