---
name: "sleep"
section: "1"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/sleep"
---

# sleep(1)

suspend execution for an interval of time

## NAME

**sleep** – suspend execution for an interval of time

## SYNOPSIS

**sleep** *seconds*

## DESCRIPTION

The **sleep** utility suspends execution for at least the given number of *seconds*. *seconds* must be a non-negative decimal value and may contain a fraction.

## ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

- SIGALRM

  Terminate early, with a zero exit status.

## EXIT STATUS

The **sleep** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## EXAMPLES

Wait five seconds before running a command:

```
$ sleep 5; echo Hello, World!
```

List a file twice per second:

```
while ls -l file; do
	sleep 0.5
done
```

## SEE ALSO

[at(1)](/at/1.md)

## STANDARDS

The **sleep** utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”) specification.

Support for fractional *seconds* is an extension to that specification.

## HISTORY

A **sleep** utility first appeared in Version 4 AT&T UNIX.

This implementation of **sleep** first appeared in 4.3BSD-Tahoe.