This page is edited from the 1cmdfaq.txt faq-file contained in
my tscmd.zip
command line interface (CLI) collection. That zipped file has much
additional material, including a number of detached .cmd script
files. It is recommended that you also get the zipped version as a
companion.
Please see "
The Description and
the Index page" for the conditions of usage and other such
information.
19} How can one build a delay / sleep / wait procedure for a script?
The most often presented delay trick is using ping. For a two second
delay one can ping oneself as follows
@echo off
echo %time%
ping -n 3 127.0.0.1>nul
echo %time%
which would produce e.g.
D:\TEST>cmdfaq
15:24:47.57
15:24:49.62
As you see, it is not dead accurate. But neither is the solution below
solution. Not that it usually is essential.
This could, of course, be written as a subroutine in case the delay
needs to be called several times during the script.
@echo off & setlocal enableextensions
echo %time%
call :SmallDelay
echo %time%
call :SmallDelay
echo %time%
endlocal & goto :EOF
::
:SmallDelay
ping -n 3 127.0.0.1>nul
goto :EOF
The output could be e.g.
D:\TEST>cmdfaq
11:36:27.98
11:36:30.03
11:36:32.09
Another method is to observe the difference between the time the delay
is started and the current time. The calculations are in hundreds of a
second since midnight. (The rare potential case of straddling the
midnight is not covered.) The example below sleeps for about two and
a half seconds.
@echo off & setlocal enableextensions
echo %time%
call :ProcDelay 250
echo %time%
endlocal & goto :EOF
::
:ProcDelay delayMSec_
setlocal enableextensions
set time_=%time%
set time_=%time_::0=:%
set time_=%time_:.0=.%
set time_=%time_: =%
for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=:. " %%h in ('echo %time_%') do (
set /a start_=360000*%%h+6000*%%i+100*%%j+%%k)
:_procwaitloop
set time_=%time%
set time_=%time_::0=:%
set time_=%time_:.0=.%
set time_=%time_: =%
for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=:. " %%h in ('echo %time_%') do (
set /a now_=360000*%%h+6000*%%i+100*%%j+%%k)
set /a diff_=%now_%-%start_%+3
if %diff_% LSS %1 goto _procwaitloop
endlocal & goto :EOF
The output e.g:
D:\TEST>cmdfaq
19:49:06.94
19:49:09.45
Why the
set time_=%time_::0=:% lines? To
avoid
the octal number catch. Octals are
(confusingly) identified by a leading zero.
Furthermore, you could have a Visual Basic Script (VBScript) aided
command line script
@echo off & setlocal enableextensions
echo WScript.Sleep 1000 > "%temp%\tmp$$$.vbs"
echo %time%
cscript //nologo "%temp%\tmp$$$.vbs"
echo %time%
for %%f in ("%temp%\tmp$$$.vbs") do if exist %%f del %%f
endlocal & goto :EOF
which would produce e.g.
D:\TEST>cmdfaq
13:13:03.00
13:13:04.07
Assorted NT/2000/XP/.. CMD.EXE Script Tricks
