SLEEP(1) — UNIX Programmer’s Manual
NAME
sleep − suspend execution for an interval
SYNOPSIS
sleep time
DESCRIPTION
Sleep suspends execution for time seconds. It is used to execute a command after a certain amount of time as in:
(sleep 105; command)&
or to execute a command every so often.
EXAMPLE
label:
command >> x
command >> x
date >> x
sleep 10
goto label
would execute the two commands and append the results to file x, then sleep for 10 seconds, and repeat the process.
SEE ALSO
BUGS
Time must be >0 and less than 4,294,967,295 (2**32-1) seconds, or 136 years.
7th Edition