xref: /openbsd/bin/sleep/sleep.1 (revision 3cab2bb3)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: sleep.1,v 1.22 2016/08/16 18:51:25 schwarze Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: sleep.1,v 1.9 1995/07/25 19:37:43 jtc Exp $
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34.\"	@(#)sleep.1	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/18/94
35.\"
36.Dd $Mdocdate: August 16 2016 $
37.Dt SLEEP 1
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm sleep
41.Nd suspend execution for an interval of time
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm sleep
44.Ar seconds
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Nm
48utility
49suspends execution for a minimum of the specified number of
50.Ar seconds .
51This number must be positive and may contain a decimal fraction.
52.Nm
53is commonly used to schedule the execution of other commands (see below).
54.Sh ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
55.Bl -tag -width "SIGALRMXXX"
56.It Dv SIGALRM
57Terminate normally, with a zero exit status.
58.El
59.Sh EXIT STATUS
60.Ex -std sleep
61.Sh EXAMPLES
62Wait a half hour before running the script
63.Pa command_file
64(see also the
65.Xr at 1
66utility):
67.Pp
68.Dl (sleep 1800; sh command_file >& errors)&
69.Pp
70To repetitively run a command (with
71.Xr csh 1 ) :
72.Bd -literal -offset indent
73while (! -r zzz.rawdata)
74	sleep 300
75end
76foreach i (*.rawdata)
77	sleep 70
78	awk -f collapse_data $i >> results
79end
80.Ed
81.Pp
82The scenario for such a script might be: a program currently
83running is taking longer than expected to process a series of
84files, and it would be nice to have another program start
85processing the files created by the first program as soon as it is finished
86(when
87.Pa zzz.rawdata
88is created).
89The script checks every five minutes for this file.
90When it is found, processing is done in several steps
91by sleeping 70 seconds between each
92.Xr awk 1
93job.
94.Pp
95To monitor the growth of a file without consuming too many resources:
96.Bd -literal -offset indent
97while true; do
98	ls -l file
99	sleep 5
100done
101.Ed
102.Sh SEE ALSO
103.Xr at 1
104.Sh STANDARDS
105The
106.Nm
107utility is compliant with the
108.St -p1003.1-2008
109specification.
110.Pp
111The handling of fractional arguments is provided as an extension to that
112specification.
113.Sh HISTORY
114A
115.Nm
116utility appeared in
117.At v4 .
118