How to sleep for five seconds in a batch file/cmd [duplicate]

Answer 1

ping waits for about 5 seconds before timing out, not 1 second as was stated above. That is, unless you tell it to only wait for 1 second before timing out.

ping 1.0.0.1 -n 1 -w 1000

will ping once, wait only 1 second (1000 ms) for a response, then time out.

So an approximately 20-second delay would be:

ping 1.0.0.1 -n 20 -w 1000

Answer 2

Try the Choice command. It's been around since MSDOS 6.0, and should do the trick.

Use the /T parameter to specify the timeout in seconds and the /D parameter to specify the default selection and ignore then selected choice.

The one thing that might be an issue is if the user types one of the choice characters before the timeout period elapses. A partial work-around is to obfuscate the situation -- use the /N argument to hide the list of valid choices and only have 1 character in the set of choices so it will be less likely that the user will type a valid choice before the timeout expires.

Below is the help text on Windows Vista. I think it is the same on XP, but look at the help text on an XP computer to verify.

C:\>CHOICE /?

CHOICE [/C choices] [/N] [/CS] [/T timeout /D choice] [/M text]

Description:
    This tool allows users to select one item from a list
    of choices and returns the index of the selected choice.

Parameter List:
   /C    choices       Specifies the list of choices to be created.
                       Default list is "YN".

   /N                  Hides the list of choices in the prompt.
                       The message before the prompt is displayed
                       and the choices are still enabled.

   /CS                 Enables case-sensitive choices to be selected.
                       By default, the utility is case-insensitive.

   /T    timeout       The number of seconds to pause before a default
                       choice is made. Acceptable values are from 0 to
                       9999. If 0 is specified, there will be no pause
                       and the default choice is selected.

   /D    choice        Specifies the default choice after nnnn seconds.
                       Character must be in the set of choices specified
                       by /C option and must also specify nnnn with /T.

   /M    text          Specifies the message to be displayed before
                       the prompt. If not specified, the utility
                       displays only a prompt.

   /?                  Displays this help message.

   NOTE:
   The ERRORLEVEL environment variable is set to the index of the
   key that was selected from the set of choices. The first choice
   listed returns a value of 1, the second a value of 2, and so on.
   If the user presses a key that is not a valid choice, the tool
   sounds a warning beep. If tool detects an error condition,
   it returns an ERRORLEVEL value of 255. If the user presses
   CTRL+BREAK or CTRL+C, the tool returns an ERRORLEVEL value
   of 0. When you use ERRORLEVEL parameters in a batch program, list
   them in decreasing order.

Examples:
   CHOICE /?
   CHOICE /C YNC /M "Press Y for Yes, N for No or C for Cancel."
   CHOICE /T 10 /C ync /CS /D y
   CHOICE /C ab /M "Select a for option 1 and b for option 2."
   CHOICE /C ab /N /M "Select a for option 1 and b for option 2."

Answer 3

I wrote a powerbasic program wait.exe, where you pass a millisecond parameter to it in your batch file

wait 3000
system('c:/windows/system32/SnippingTool.exe')

the code for the EXE:

FUNCTION PBMAIN()
  c$ = Command$
  s! = Val(c$)*1000
  Sleep s!         
END FUNCTION

Answer 4

You can use VBScript, for example, file myscript.vbs:

set wsobject = wscript.createobject("wscript.shell")

do while 1=1
    wsobject.run "SnippingTool.exe",0,TRUE
    wscript.sleep 3000
loop

Batch file:

cscript myscript.vbs %1

Answer 5

I use the following method entirely based on Windows XP capabilities to do a delay in a batch file:

File DELAY.BAT

@ECHO OFF
REM DELAY seconds

REM GET ENDING SECOND
FOR /F "TOKENS=1-3 DELIMS=:." %%A IN ("%TIME%") DO SET /A H=%%A, M=1%%B%%100,     S=1%%C%%100, ENDING=(H*60+M)*60+S+%1

REM WAIT FOR SUCH A SECOND
:WAIT
FOR /F "TOKENS=1-3 DELIMS=:." %%A IN ("%TIME%") DO SET /A H=%%A, M=1%%B%%100, S=1%%C%%100, CURRENT=(H*60+M)*60+S
IF %CURRENT% LSS %ENDING% GOTO WAIT

You may also insert the day in the calculation so the method also works when the delay interval pass over midnight.

Answer 6

Make a cmd file called sleep.cmd:

REM Usage: SLEEP Time_in_MiliSECONDS
@ECHO off
ping 1.0.0.0 -n 1 -w %1 > nul

Copy sleep.cmd to c:\windows\system32

Usage:

sleep 500

Sleeps for 0.5 seconds. Arguments in ms. Once copied to System32, can be used everywhere.

EDIT: You should also be away that if the machine isn't connected to a network (say a portable that your using in the subway), the ping trick doesn't really work anymore.