WAIT(1)               (Essential Utilities)               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
       process.

  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
       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.)

  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.








  Page 1                                                   May 1989