How to sleep for 1 second between each xargs command?

linux bash shell xargs
WDan picture WDan · Mar 1, 2013 · Viewed 11.5k times · Source

For example, if I execute 

ps aux | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -I {} echo {}

I want to let the shell sleep for 1 second between each echo.

How can I change my shell command?

Answer

kamituel picture kamituel · Mar 1, 2013

You can use following syntax:

ps aux | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -I % sh -c '{ echo %; sleep 1; }'

Be careful with spaces and semicolons though. After every command between brackets, semicolon is required (even after last one).

Related questions

xargs with multiple arguments

I have a source input, input.txt a.txt b.txt c.txt I want to feed these input into a program as the following: my-program --file=a.txt --file=b.txt --file=c.txt So I try to use …

Read More
Why do I need parenthesis In bash `set -e` and negated return code

I have a shell script which checks for windows line endings. set -e (! git ls-files | xargs grep -I $'\r') I am using the ! character to negate the return code of the command. Grep will return code 0 when a file …

Read More
How do I prompt for Yes/No/Cancel input in a Linux shell script?

I want to pause input in a shell script, and prompt the user for choices. The standard Yes, No, or Cancel type question. How do I accomplish this in a typical bash prompt?

Read More