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)