Задержка в командной строке windows

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Статья описывает шесть способов организации командном файле BAT/CMD задержки, задаваемой в секундах.

Хотя чаще bat файлы выполняются полностью автоматически, в некоторых случаях может понадобиться

• Приостановка выполнения bat файла перед повтором неудачной операции, например, подключения к сетевому диску по WebDav
• Пауза в несколько секунд после выполнения команды, чтобы пользователь мог просмотреть результат выполнения
• Интервал между командами, каким-то образом влияющими друг на друга

Варианты задержки в bat файле

Программа PING

Запускаю PING с нужным числом запросов (примерно 1 секунда на запрос), например, на 30 секунд:

    ping localhost -n 30 >nul

Никакой информации при этом не выводится, так как вывод перенаправлен в nul..

Преимущества: работает на всех Windows компьютеров , т.к. программа PING установлена всегда и на всех версиях.

Недостатки: время задержки кратно секунде, т.е. нельзя сделать задержку менее 1 секунды, например, в 200 или 500 мс.

Программа SLEEP.EXE из Windows Resource Kit

Консольное приложение sleep.exe входит в пакет программ Windows XP Resource Kit (или Windows 2003 Resource Kit. Из краткой справки

    sleep.exe/?
    Usage:  C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\sleep.exe      time-to-sleep-in-seconds
            C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\sleep.exe [-m] time-to-sleep-in-milliseconds
            C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\sleep.exe [-c] commited-memory ratio (1%-100%)

Поэтому для задержки в 10 секунд надо запустить

а для задержки 500 мс надо написать

Преимущества: можно задавать задержки не только в секундах, но и в миллисекундах. Хотя необходимости в коротких задержках менее секунды у меня ни разу не возникало. Если у вас есть примеры такой задачи, напишите, пожалуйста, в комментариях.

Недостатки: SLEEP.EXE не входит в стандартный комплект Windows и может оказаться, что на целевом компьютере этого файла нет, и его надо будет распространять вместе с bat файлом.

Скрипт WSH/JScript

Создаём на JScript небольшой скрипт SLEEP.JS, использующий функцию WScript.Sleep:

var milliseconds=WScript.Arguments(0);
WScript.Sleep(milliseconds);

и вызываем его из командного файла, например, задержка 10 секунд:

cscript //nologo sleep.js 10000

или 500 мс

cscript //nologo sleep.js 500

Аналогичный скрипт можно написать на VBScript.

WScript.Sleep Wscript.Arguments(0)

Преимущества: можно задавать задержки в секундах и миллисекундах; не требуются сторонние программы.

Недостатки: требуется распространять файл скрипта вместе с bat файлом или вставлять в bat файл код для создания файла скрипта, например, так:

echo WScript.Sleep Wscript.Arguments(0) > sleep.vbs
cscript //nologo sleep.vbs 500
del sleep.vbs

Программа timeout.exe

Консольное приложение timeout.exe предустановлена в современных версиях Windows и выполняет задержку в секундах с возможностью выхода из ожидания по нажатию клавиши:

timeout /t 30

Если пауза не должна прерываться по нажатию клавиши, то надо добавить параметр /nobreak:

timeout /t 30 /nobreak

Время можно задавать только в секундах.

Плюсы программы — отображение информации для пользователя, чтобы он понимал, что происходит сейчас в bat файле, возможность продолжения работы bat файла как по времени, так и по клавише.

Скрипт PowerShell

Функция Start-Sleep приостанавливает действие в скрипте или сеансе на указанное время, например, задержка 10 секунд:

powershell start-sleep -seconds 10

Программа nhmb

Программа nhmb имеет встроенный таймер и используется в bat файлах для создания задержки:

nhmb.exe "Ошибка подключения к серверу.\nСервер на найден" "Резервное копирование" "Question|RetryCancel" "30"

Программ nhmb выводит окно сообщения MessageBox с таймером в заголовке, чтобы пользователь мог понять, что сейчас идёт задержка перед следующей операцией и мог повлиять на ход выполнения:

Какой вариант выбрать?

В итоге, вариантов много, а что применять? На этой картинке показано тестирование всех вариантов:

Ответ зависит от задачи:

• Если требуется просто остановить выполнение bat файла на несколько секунд без вывода информации пользователю и без ожидания действий с его стороны, то наилучший вариант – старый добрый способ на основе ping, потому что работает везде, прост в использовании и не требует дополнительных файлов.
• Если требуется сделать задержку с выводом информации в окне командной строки, то лучше подходит timeout.exe – показывает оставшееся время, работает в современных версиях Windows и не требует дополнительных файлов.
• Если пауза нужна с выводом информации пользователю в диалоговом окне Message Box, то nhmb.exe открывает всплывающее окно с таймером в заголовке.

Узнать больше

Файлы для скачивания

Скачать bat файлы, скрипты и исполняемые файлы, описанные в этой статье (программы nhts и nhcolor не требуются для паузы и были добавлены для оформления вывода bat файла)

Скачать файлы Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, Windows XP Support Tools, Windows Server 2000 Resource Kit

Программы

nhmb — показ всплывающего окна MessageBox с таймером обратного отсчёта

nhts – добавление даты и времени к тексту

nhcolor – выделение части текста цветом

Наши соцсети

This is the latest version of what I am using in practice for a ten second pause to see the output when a script finishes.

BEST>@echo done
BEST>@set DelayInSeconds=10
BEST>@rem Use ping to wait
BEST>@ping 192.0.2.0 -n 1 -w %DelayInSeconds%000 > nul

The echo done allows me to see when the script finished and the ping provides the delay. The extra @ signs mean that I see the «done» text and the waiting occurs without me being distracted by their commands.

I have tried the various solutions given here on an XP machine, since the idea was to have a batch file that would run on a variety of machines, and so I picked the XP machine as the environment likely to be the least capable.

GOOD> ping 192.0.2.0 -n 1 -w 3000 > nul

This seemed to give a three second delay as expected. One ping attempt lasting a specified 3 seconds.

BAD> ping -n 5 192.0.2.0 > nul

This took around 10 seconds (not 5). My explanation is that there are 5 ping attempts, each about a second apart, making 4 seconds. And each ping attempt probably lasted around a second making an estimated 9 seconds in total.

BAD> timeout 5
BAD> sleep /w2000
BAD> waitfor /T 180
BAD> choice

Commands not available.

BAD> ping 192.0.2.0 -n 1 -w 10000 > nul :: wait 10000 milliseconds, ie 10 secs

I tried the above too, after reading that comments could be added to BAT files by using two consecutive colons. However the software returned almost instantly. Putting the comment on its own line before the ping worked fine.

GOOD> :: wait 10000 milliseconds, ie 10 secs
GOOD> ping 192.0.2.0 -n 1 -w 10000 > nul

To understand better what ping does in practice, I ran

ping 192.0.2.0 -n 5 -w 5000

This took around 30 seconds, even though 5*5=25. My explanation is that there are 5 ping attempts each lasting 5 seconds, but there is about a 1 second time delay between ping attempts: there is after all little reason to expect a different result if you ping again immediately and it is better to give a network a little time to recover from whatever problem it has had.

Edit: stolen from another post, .. RFC 3330 says the IP address 192.0.2.0 should not appear on the internet, so pinging this address prevents these tests spamming anyone!
I have modified the text above accordingly!

The Sleep/Wait Command is a very useful command that is used to pause for a set amount of time while a batch script is being executed. To put it another way, this command makes it easier to run a command for a set amount of time.

You may find yourself in a situation where you want to run a series of command lines one after the other, but with a time delay between them. In this case, the sleep command will come in handy. This article will show you how to use the sleep command in Windows batch scripts.

📚 Note: Windows does not have a direct Sleep command as provided in Linux, we must use a different method to achieve the same result. Furthermore, no root privileges are required to implement in a batch script.

1 Using timeout to achieve sleep function

timeout is an old Windows command introduced in Windows 2000 that is used to add a delay between two tasks.

Usage :

timeout /t [/nobreak]

Here,

Example1: Basic timeout in Batch Script

@echo off
echo First Task Here …
echo Approximately 10-second delay
timeout /t 10 
echo Second Task Here …
pause

We have two tasks here, and we have inserted a timeout script that waits for 10 seconds for the First Task to complete before starting the Second Task.

In details:

«@echo off» disables the console window command display in this Windows batch file script. After this line, console commands will not be displayed.

The terminal window will display «echo First Task Here» after the next line. Displays the provided text in the console window.

«echo About 10-second delay» informs the user of a delay in the console window.

«Timeout /t 10» will postpone script execution for 10 seconds. The console window will countdown the remaining time.

«echo Second Task Here…» will appear in the terminal window after the wait, restarting script execution.

Lastly, the «pause» command pauses script execution and displays «Press any key to resume…«, allowing the user to inspect the console window output before closing it. After «pause,» the script must be resumed by pressing any key.

Drawback: This will show unnecessary «Waiting for 0 seconds, press a key to continue…» and when you press any key it will continue to the next task. It is a good way of letting the user know the safe escape route to skip sleep.

Example2: Timeout with only CTRL + C key to Skip

@echo off
 …..
timeout /t 10 /nobreak
…..
pause

Here, /nobreak does not allow to break or skip sleep with any key. But pressing the CTRL + C key combination will force to close the batch processing and close the program immediately.

Example 3: Sleep without timeout message

@echo off
….
timeout /t 15 /nobreak > nul
….
pause

Appending >nul part so that the command does not display output anything to the screen. It suppresses the countdown time.

Another best use case of the timeout is as follows:

calc && timeout 5 && notepad

This will open the calculator, then wait 5 seconds before opening the notepad. Remember to include and && between each block. You can continue to cascade it like shown below

calc && timeout 3 && notepad && timeout 4 && regedit

This will open the calculator, then wait 3 seconds for the notepad to open, then wait 4 seconds for the registry editor to open.

Note that: Ctrl + C will break the whole program.

Drawbacks of TIMEOUT 

Here are some drawbacks of timeout :

• Cannot perform delay in a fraction of a second. ie. like timeout /t 0.5 does not work. And will give
  an error message stating «Error: Invalid value for timeout (/T) specified. The valid range is -1 to 99999)
• Cannot use a second value greater than 99999

2 Using Ping to Delay to achieve sleep function

@echo off
…..
ping localhost -n 10 > nul
…..
pause

Ping is actually used to determine whether or not a resource responds to a request. Ping sends a request to the resource and waits one second for a response. As a result, it is useful to use it as a delay function. Even if it waits for one second, it may receive a response in a few milliseconds. However, as soon as you ping the last packet here in the tenth request, it will automatically stop.

The resource we are pinging here is localhost, which is a local loopback, and it responds instantly within a millisecond but must wait 1 second each. And here in the example, we are waiting for nearly 10 seconds before executing the next line.

Note that: Ctrl + C will break the delay.

3 Using Ping to Delay with nonexisting IP

@echo off
….
ping 192.4.4.4 -n 1 -w 10000 > nul
….
pause

Here waiting for 10 seconds. Here we must ping a non-existing IP address and if it exists it will not work. -w indicates waiting and here it waits for 10000 ms, you can change this value. And by default ping will request 4 times to the resource. Here, -n 1 indicates request only 1 time.

4 Using Ping to Delay in less than 1 second.

Just replace 10000ms with anything smaller than 1000ms. like 500ms as shown below

ping 192.4.4.4 -n 1 -w 500 > nul

5 Using Powershell in Command to delay 

Simply follow the simple example below if you want to use Powershell commands from the command line:

Example 1

powershell -command «Please Wait for 5 second» -s 5

type this command in the command line or batch file. This command will hold the screen for 5 seconds. You can change it from 5 to any number. This can be useful if a Windows command fails or has an issue.

Example 2:

powershell -nop -c «& {sleep -m 5}»

6 Using Powershell in Sleep Start Command to delay 

Alternatively, you can sleep-start command of Powershell in CMD as below:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Start-Sleep -Seconds 5"

The above command will wait for 5 seconds. Note that: Method 5 is a short form of method 6

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Start-Sleep -MilliSeconds 500"

The above command will wait for 500 milliseconds.

7 Using the Mshta command

Mshta.exe is a native Windows binary that was developed specifically for the purpose of executing Microsoft HTML Application (HTA) files.Mshta is able to run code written in Windows Script Host (VBScript and JScript) that is embedded into HTML in a manner that is aware of network proxies.

start "" /w /b /min mshta "javascript:setTimeout(function(){close();},5000);"

Conclusion:

To summarize, in Windows batch files, you can pause the execution of the batch file for a specified number of seconds by using the «sleep» command, and you can create a custom «wait» command by using the «timeout» command. Both of these commands can be found in the «commands» section of the batch file. While the «wait» command can be used to wait for a defined number of seconds before continuing with the next command, the «sleep» command is used to pause the execution of the batch file for a specified number of seconds at a time. You will be able to regulate the timing and flow of your batch file by using these commands, which will enable you to ensure that it runs smoothly and effectively.

FAQ:

What is the WaitFor command?

Waitfor.exe is a small utility that is included with Windows 7 and later versions. This program is designed to listen for and respond to a named signal. Visit here for more info.

Is there a command in Windows that allows you to sleep and wait?

There is no sleep and wait-for command in the windows version. The best alternative is the Timeout command as explained above. In Linux, you can simply use: sleep n in the terminal where n is time in seconds.

How to sleep for five seconds in a batch file?

A simple way to do this in a batch file before and after the task you want to sleep or hold is as follows:

timeout /t 5 /nobreak >nul

1. @ECHO OFF

2. :: Check Windows version

3. IF NOT "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" GOTO Syntax

5. :: Check if a valid timeout period is specified

6. IF     "%~1"=="" GOTO Syntax

7. IF NOT "%~2"=="" GOTO Syntax

8. ECHO.%*| FINDSTR /R /X /C:"[0-9][0-9]*" >NUL || GOTO Syntax

9. IF %~1 LSS    1 GOTO Syntax

10. IF %~1 GTR 3600 GOTO Syntax

12. :: Use local variable

13. SETLOCAL

15. :: Add 1 second for IPv4

16. SET /A seconds = %1 + 1

18. :: The actual command: try IPv4 first, if that fails try IPv6

19. PING -n %seconds% 127.0.0.1 >NUL 2>&1 || PING -n %1 ::1 >NUL 2>&1

21. :: Done

22. ENDLOCAL

23. GOTO:EOF

26. :Syntax

27. ECHO.

28. ECHO PMSleep.bat

29. ECHO Poor Man's SLEEP utility,  Version 3.00 for Windows NT 4 and later.

30. ECHO Wait for a specified number of seconds.

31. ECHO.

32. ECHO Usage:  CALL  PMSLEEP  seconds

33. ECHO.

34. ECHO Where:        seconds  is the number of seconds to wait (1..3600)

35. ECHO.

36. ECHO Notes:  The script uses PING for the delay, so an IP stack is required.

37. ECHO         The delay time will not be very accurate.

38. ECHO.

39. ECHO Written by Rob van der Woude

40. ECHO http://www.robvanderwoude.com

42. IF "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" EXIT /B 1

1. @ECHO OFF

2. :: Check if a timeout period is specified

3. IF "%1"=="" GOTO Syntax

5. :: Filter out slashes, they make the IF command crash

6. ECHO.%1 | FIND "/" >NUL

7. IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Syntax

9. :: Check for a non-existent IP address

10. :: Note: this causes a small extra delay!

11. IF "%NonExist%"=="" SET NonExist=10.255.255.254

12. PING %NonExist% -n 1 -w 100 | FIND "TTL=" >NUL

13. IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Delay

14. SET NonExist=1.1.1.1

15. PING %NonExist% -n 1 -w 100 | FIND "TTL=" >NUL

16. IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO NoNonExist

18. :Delay

19. :: Use PING time-outs to create the delay

20. PING %NonExist% -n 1 -w %1000 >NUL

22. :: Show online help on errors

23. IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Syntax

25. :: Done

26. GOTO End

28. :NoNonExist

29. ECHO.

30. ECHO This batch file needs an invalid IP address to function

31. ECHO correctly.

32. ECHO Please specify an invalid IP address in an environment

33. ECHO variable named NonExist and run this batch file again.

35. :Syntax

36. ECHO.

37. ECHO PMSlpW9x.bat

38. ECHO Poor Man's SLEEP utility,  Version 2.10 for Windows 95 / 98

39. ECHO Wait for a specified number of seconds.

40. ECHO.

41. ECHO Written by Rob van der Woude

42. ECHO http://www.robvanderwoude.com

43. ECHO Corrected and improved by Todd Renzema and Greg Hassler

44. ECHO.

45. ECHO Usage:    CALL PMSLPW9X nn

46. ECHO.

47. ECHO Where:    nn is the number of seconds to wait

48. ECHO.

49. ECHO Example:  CALL PMSLPW9X 10

50. ECHO           will wait for 10 seconds

51. ECHO.

52. ECHO Note:     Due to "overhead" the actual delay may

53. ECHO           prove to be up to a second longer

55. :End

1. @ECHO OFF

2. IF "%1"=="" GOTO Syntax

3. ECHO.

4. ECHO Waiting %1 seconds

5. ECHO.

6. REM | CHOICE /C:AB /T:A,%1 > NUL

7. IF ERRORLEVEL 255 ECHO Invalid parameter

8. IF ERRORLEVEL 255 GOTO Syntax

9. GOTO End

11. :Syntax

12. ECHO.

13. ECHO WAIT for a specified number of seconds

14. ECHO.

15. ECHO Usage:  WAIT  n

16. ECHO.

17. ECHO Where:  n  =  the number of seconds to wait (1 to 99)

18. ECHO.

20. :End

1. @ECHO OFF

2. IF NOT "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" GOTO Syntax

3. IF "%~1"=="" GOTO Syntax

4. ECHO.

5. ECHO Waiting %~1 seconds

6. ECHO.

7. CHOICE /C:AB /D:A /T:%1 > NUL

8. IF ERRORLEVEL 255 (

9. 	ECHO Invalid parameter

10. 	GOTO Syntax

11. )

12. GOTO:EOF

14. :Syntax

15. ECHO.

16. ECHO WAIT for a specified number of seconds

17. ECHO.

18. ECHO Usage:  WAIT  n

19. ECHO.

20. ECHO Where:  n  =  the number of seconds to wait (1 to 99)

21. ECHO.

22. EXIT /B 1

1. @ECHO OFF

2. SET Message=It is time for your daily backup.\nPlease save and close all documents,\nor press any key to skip the backup.

3. START /B SystemTrayMessage.exe "%Message%" /T:"Backup Time" /V:20 /S:186 /W

4. ECHO Press any key to skip the backup . . .

5. SET /P "=Seconds to start of backup: " < NUL

6. CountDown.exe 20

7. IF ERRORLEVEL 2 (

8. 	ECHO.

9. 	ECHO Backup has been skipped . . .

10. 	EXIT /B 1

11. )

12. SystemTrayMessage.exe "Your daily backup has been started" /T:"Backup Running" /V:20 /S:186

13. REM Insert your backup command here

1. Start-Sleep -Seconds 10 # wait 10 seconds

2. Start-Sleep 10 # wait 10 seconds

3. Start-Sleep -Seconds 2.7 # wait 3 seconds, rounded to integer

4. Start-Sleep -MilliSeconds 500 # wait half a second

1. @ECHO OFF

2. REM %1 is the number of seconds for the delay, as specified on the command line

3. powershell.exe -Command "Start-Sleep -Seconds %1"

1. @ECHO OFF

2. REM %1 is the number of seconds (fractions allowed) for the delay, as specified on the command line

3. powershell.exe -Command "Start-Sleep -MilliSeconds ( 1000 * %1 )"

1. @ECHO OFF

2. REM %1 is the number of seconds for the delay, as specified on the command line

3. > "%Temp%.\sleep.vbs" ECHO WScript.Sleep %~1 * 1000

4. CSCRIPT //NoLogo "%Temp%.\sleep.vbs"

5. DEL "%Temp%.\sleep.vbs"

1. @ECHO OFF

2. REM %1 is the number of seconds for the delay, as specified on the command line

3. >  "%Temp%.\sleep.vbs" ECHO Set wshShell = CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" )

4. >> "%Temp%.\sleep.vbs" ECHO ret = wshShell.Popup( "Waiting %~1 seconds", %~1, "Please Wait", vbInformation )

5. >> "%Temp%.\sleep.vbs" ECHO Set wshShell = Nothing

6. CSCRIPT //NoLogo "%Temp%.\sleep.vbs"

7. DEL "%Temp%.\sleep.vbs"

page last modified: 2023-09-12