wait(1) General Commands Manual wait(1)
Name
wait - wait for process completion
Syntax
wait [pid]
Description
The command waits until all processes started with an ampersand (&) have completed and reports on abnormal terminations.
If a numeric pid is given and is the process ID of a background process, then waits until that process is completed. If pid is not a back-
ground process, waits until all background processes have completed.
Because the system call must be executed in the parent process, the Shell itself executes without creating a new process.
Restrictions
Because not all the processes of a 3- or more-stage pipeline are children of the Shell, the command does not work on them.
The [pid] is available only with sh5.
See Also
sh(1), sh5(1), wait(2)
wait(1)
