Using the sleep command (with examples)

Delay in seconds

The sleep command is used to delay the execution of a script or a command for a specified amount of time. One of the most basic usages of the sleep command is to introduce a delay in seconds. The syntax for delaying for a specific number of seconds is as follows:

sleep seconds

Motivation

There are scenarios where a delay is required between the execution of two commands or before executing a specific command. By using the sleep command, you can easily introduce this delay and control the timing of your script or command execution.

Explanation

• seconds: This argument specifies the duration of the delay in seconds. It accepts an integer or a floating-point number.

Example

Let’s say we want to introduce a delay of 5 seconds before executing the next command. We can achieve this by using the sleep command as follows:

sleep 5

After running the above command, the script or command execution will pause for 5 seconds before proceeding further.

Execute a specific command after a delay

In addition to introducing a delay, the sleep command can also be used to execute a specific command after a certain delay. This can be achieved by combining the sleep command with the logical AND operator (&&). The syntax for this use case is as follows:

sleep seconds && command

Motivation

There might be situations where you want to delay the execution of a command and ensure that it is only executed after a certain amount of time has passed. This can be useful, for example, when scheduling tasks or when dealing with dependencies between commands.

Explanation

• seconds: This argument specifies the duration of the delay in seconds. It accepts an integer or a floating-point number.
• command: This is the command that you want to execute after the delay. It can be any valid command or script.

Example

Let’s assume we have a script that needs to wait for 20 seconds before executing the next command. We can accomplish this using the following sleep command:

sleep 20 && echo "Time's up!"

In this example, the script will pause for 20 seconds and then print the message “Time’s up!” to the console.

Conclusion

The sleep command is a useful tool when it comes to introducing delays in your scripts or controlling the timing of command execution. By specifying a duration in seconds, you can easily pause the execution of your script or execute specific commands after a delay. Whether it’s for scheduling tasks, dealing with dependencies, or simply introducing a wait time, the sleep command provides a simple and effective solution.