wait(1)                                                      wait(1)


       NAME
             wait - await completion of process

       SYNOPSIS
             wait [pid . . .]

       DESCRIPTION
             Wait for your background processes whose process IDs are the
             values of pid and report termination status.  Any pid which
             represents an unknown process ID is treated as if it were a
             known process ID that exited with exit status 127.

             If pid is omitted, all your shell's currently active
             background processes are waited for.

             The shell itself executes wait, without creating a new
             process.

       EXIT STATUS
             wait exits with an exit status determined as follows.

             If wait is invoked with one or more pid arguments, and the
             processes of all the given pids have terminated or are not
             known to the invoking shell, and the status of the last pid is
             known, then the exit status is that of the last pid.

             If wait terminated abnormally due to the receipt of a signal,
             the exit status is greater than 128.

             Otherwise, wait exits with one of the following values:

                 0     wait was invoked with no operands and all process
                       IDs known by the invoking shell have terminated.

             1-126     wait detected an error.

               127     The process identified by the last pid operand given
                       is unknown.

       FILES
             /usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxcore.abi
                   language-specific message file [See LANG on environ
                   (5).]





                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 1

      wait(1)                                                      wait(1)


      REFERENCES
            sh(1)

      NOTICES
            If you get the error message cannot fork, too many processes,
            try using the wait command to clean up your background
            processes.  If this doesn't help, the system process 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 to the number the system can
            keep track of.)

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

            If pid is not an active process id, wait returns immediately.
































                          Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 2