WAIT(1)              INTERACTIVE UNIX System              WAIT(1)



          NAME
               wait - await completion of process

          SYNOPSIS
               wait [ n ]

          DESCRIPTION
               Wait for your background process whose process id is n and
               report its termination status.  If n is omitted, all your
               shell's currently active background processes are waited for
               and the return code will be zero.

               The shell itself executes wait, without creating a new pro-
               cess.

          SEE ALSO
               sh(1).

          CAVEAT
               If you get the error message cannot fork, too many
               processes, try using the wait(1) command to clean up your
               background processes.  If this doesn't help, the system pro-
               cess table is probably full or you have too many active
               foreground processes.  (There is a limit to the number of
               process ids associated with your login and the number the
               system can keep track of.)

          BUGS
               Not all the processes of a 3- or more-stage pipeline are
               children of the shell, and thus cannot be waited for.

               If n is not an active process id, all your shell's currently
               active background processes are waited for and the return
               code will be zero.





















          Rev. Base System                                           Page 1