xref: /netbsd/share/man/man1/wait.1 (revision bf9ec67e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: wait.1,v 1.3 2002/02/13 08:17:26 ross Exp $
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34.\"     @(#)wait.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
35.\"
36.Dd June 5, 1993
37.Dt WAIT 1
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm wait
41.Nd await process completion
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm wait
44.Op Ar pid
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46If invoked with no arguments, the
47.Nm wait
48utility waits until
49all existing child processes in the background
50have terminated.
51.Pp
52Available operands:
53.Bl -tag -width Ds
54.It Ar pid
55If a
56.Ar pid
57operand is specified, and it is the process ID of a
58background child process that still exists, the
59.Nm wait
60utility
61waits until that process has completed and consumes its
62status information, without consuming the status information
63of any other process.
64.Pp
65If a pid operand is specified that is not the process ID of
66a child background process that still exists,
67.Nm wait
68exits
69without waiting for any processes to complete.
70.El
71.Pp
72The
73.Nm wait
74utility exits with one of the following values:
75.Bl -tag -width Ds
76.It \&0
77The
78.Nm wait
79utility was invoked with no operands and
80all of the existing background child processes have
81terminated, or the process specified by the pid
82operand exited normally with 0 as its exit status.
83.It \&\*[Gt]\&0
84The specified process did not exist and its exit
85status information was not available, or the specified
86process existed or its exit status information
87was available, and it terminated with a non-zero
88exit status.
89.El
90.Pp
91If the specified process terminated abnormally due
92to the receipt of a signal, the exit status
93information of
94.Nm wait
95contains that termination status as
96well.
97.Sh STANDARDS
98The
99.Nm wait
100command is expected to be
101.St -p1003.2
102compatible.
103