Linux sleep Guide

Complete beginner-friendly guide to sleep on Linux, covering Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions including delays, script pauses, and timing operations.

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Table of Contents

1. sleep Basics
2. Delays
3. Script Usage
4. Multiple Delays
5. Troubleshooting

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sleep Basics

Simple Delay

Basic usage:

# Sleep for seconds
sleep 5

# Waits 5 seconds

In Scripts

Script delay:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Starting..."
sleep 3
echo "Done!"

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⏱ Delays

Seconds

Basic delay:

# Sleep 5 seconds
sleep 5

# Waits 5 seconds

Minutes

Longer delay:

# Sleep 2 minutes
sleep 2m

# m = minutes

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Script Usage

Loop Delay

Delay in loop:

#!/bin/bash
for i in {1..5}; do
    echo "Iteration $i"
    sleep 1
done

Conditional Delay

Wait for condition:

#!/bin/bash
while ! ping -c 1 server; do
    echo "Waiting for server..."
    sleep 5
done

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Multiple Delays

Sum Delays

Add delays:

# Sleep 1 minute 30 seconds
sleep 1m 30s

# Sums delays: 90 seconds total

Different Units

Mixed units:

# Sleep 1 hour 30 minutes 15 seconds
sleep 1h 30m 15s

# All units supported

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Troubleshooting

sleep Not Found

Check installation:

# sleep is part of coreutils
# Usually pre-installed

# Check sleep
which sleep

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Summary

This guide covered sleep usage, delays, and script timing for Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions.

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Next Steps

• Bash Scripting Guide - Scripting basics
• time Guide - Command timing
• watch Guide - Periodic execution
• sleep Documentation: man sleep

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This guide covers Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other Linux distributions. For distribution-specific details, refer to your distribution's documentation.