Sleeping in a batch file

Question

When writing a batch file to automate something on a Windows box, I've needed to pause its execution for several seconds (usually in a test/wait loop, waiting for a process to start). At the time, the best solution I could find uses ping (I kid you not) to achieve the desired effect. I've found a better write-up of it here, which describes a callable "wait.bat", implemented as follows:

@ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > nul
@ping 127.0.0.1 -n %1% -w 1000> nul

You can then include calls to wait.bat in your own batch file, passing in the number of seconds to sleep.

Apparently the Windows 2003 Resource Kit provides a Unix-like sleep command (at last!). In the meantime, for those of us still using Windows XP, Windows 2000 or (sadly) Windows NT, is there a better way?

I modified the sleep.py script in the accepted answer, so that it defaults to one second if no arguments are passed on the command line:

import time, sys

time.sleep(float(sys.argv[1]) if len(sys.argv) > 1 else 1)

Answer 1

If you've got PowerShell on your system, you can just execute this command:

powershell -command "Start-Sleep -s 1"

---

Edit: from my answer on a similar thread, people raised an issue where the amount of time powershell takes to start is significant compared to how long you're trying to wait for. If the accuracy of the wait time is important (ie a second or two extra delay is not acceptable), you can use this approach:

powershell -command "$sleepUntil = [DateTime]::Parse('%date% %time%').AddSeconds(5); $sleepDuration = $sleepUntil.Subtract((get-date)).TotalMilliseconds; start-sleep -m $sleepDuration"

This takes the time when the windows command was issued, and the powershell script sleeps until 5 seconds after that time. So as long as powershell takes less time to start than your sleep duration, this approach will work (it's around 600ms on my machine).

Answer 2

Or command line Python, for example, for 6 and a half seconds:

python -c "import time;time.sleep(6.5)"

Answer 3

This was tested on Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 and uses CScript. I put in some safe guards to avoid del "" prompting. (/q would be dangerous)

Wait one second:

sleepOrDelayExecution 1000

Wait 500 ms and then run stuff after:

sleepOrDelayExecution 500 dir \ /s

sleepOrDelayExecution.bat:

@echo off
if "%1" == "" goto end
if NOT %1 GTR 0 goto end
setlocal
set sleepfn="%temp%\sleep%random%.vbs"
echo WScript.Sleep(%1) >%sleepfn%
if NOT %sleepfn% == "" if NOT EXIST %sleepfn% goto end
cscript %sleepfn% >nul
if NOT %sleepfn% == "" if EXIST %sleepfn% del %sleepfn%
for /f "usebackq tokens=1*" %%i in (`echo %*`) DO @ set params=%%j
%params%
:end

Answer 4

Since others are suggesting 3rd party programs (Python, Perl, custom app, etc), another option is GNU CoreUtils for Windows available at http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/coreutils.htm.

2 options for deployment:

1. Install full package (which will include the full suite of CoreUtils, dependencies, documentation, etc).
2. Install only the 'sleep.exe' binary and necessary dependencies (use depends.exe to get dependencies).

One benefit of deploying CoreUtils is that you'll additionally get a host of other programs that are helpful for scripting (Windows batch leaves a lot to be desired).

Answer 5

Over at Server Fault, a similar question was asked, the solution there was:

choice /d y /t 5 > nul

Answer 6

The pathping.exe can sleep less than second.

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion 
echo !TIME! & pathping localhost -n -q 1 -p %~1 2>&1 > nul & echo !TIME!

.

> sleep 10
17:01:33,57
17:01:33,60

> sleep 20
17:03:56,54
17:03:56,58

> sleep 50
17:04:30,80
17:04:30,87

> sleep 100
17:07:06,12
17:07:06,25

> sleep 200
17:07:08,42
17:07:08,64

> sleep 500
17:07:11,05
17:07:11,57

> sleep 800
17:07:18,98
17:07:19,81

> sleep 1000
17:07:22,61
17:07:23,62

> sleep 1500
17:07:27,55
17:07:29,06