WAITPID(1) User Commands WAITPID(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

waitpid - utility to wait for arbitrary processes

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**waitpid** \[-v] \[**--timeout**|**-t** *seconds*] PID\[:inode]...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

**waitpid** is a simple command to wait for arbitrary non-child processes.

It exits after all processes whose PIDs have been passed as arguments have exited.

Optionally, a process can be addressed with the format *PID:inode*. The *inode* identifies the unique process’s file descriptor. To retrieve a process’s inode number you can use the [**getino**(1)](/man/os/util-linux/getino.1) utility.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

**-v**, **--verbose**

Be more verbose.

**-t**, **--timeout** *seconds*

Maximum wait time.

**-e**, **--exited**

Don’t error on already exited PIDs.

**-c**, **--count** *count*

Number of process exits to wait for.

**-h**, **--help**

Display help text and exit.

**-V**, **--version**

Display version and exit.

# [EXIT STATUS](#EXIT_STATUS)

**waitpid** has the following exit status values:

**0**

success

**1**

unspecified failure

**2**

system does not provide necessary functionality

**3**

timeout expired

# [AUTHORS](#AUTHORS)

*Thomas Weißschuh* <thomas@t-8ch.de>

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**waitpid**(2)](/man/os/util-linux/waitpid.2) [**wait**(1P)](/man/os/util-linux/wait.1P) [**getino**(1)](/man/os/util-linux/getino.1)

# [REPORTING BUGS](#REPORTING_BUGS)

For bug reports, use the *issue tracker* <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.

# [AVAILABILITY](#AVAILABILITY)

The **waitpid** command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from *Linux Kernel Archive* <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

2026-10-19 util-linux 2.42.4

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Document: waitpid(1) from util-linux 2.42.4-r1 (Chainguard OS)