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Start-Sleep

Suspends the activity in a script or session for the specified period of time.

Syntax

Start-Sleep
     [-Seconds] <Int32>
     [<CommonParameters>]
Start-Sleep
     -Milliseconds <Int32>
     [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Start-Sleep cmdlet suspends the activity in a script or session for the specified period of time. You can use it for many tasks, such as waiting for an operation to complete or pausing before repeating an operation.

Examples

Example 1: Sleep all commands for 15 seconds

Start-Sleep -s 15

This command makes all commands in the session sleep for 15 seconds.

Example 2: Sleep all commands

Start-Sleep -m 500

This command makes all the commands in the session sleep for one-half of a second (500 milliseconds).

Parameters

-Milliseconds

Specifies how long the resource sleeps in milliseconds. The parameter can be abbreviated as m.

Type:Int32
Aliases:ms
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Seconds

Specifies how long the resource sleeps in seconds. You can omit the parameter name (Seconds), or you can abbreviate it as s.

Type:Int32
Position:1
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

Int32

You can pipe the number of seconds to Start-Sleep.

Outputs

None

This cmdlet does not return any output.

Notes

  • You can also refer to Start-Sleep by its built-in alias, sleep. For more information, see about_Aliases.
  • Ctrl+C breaks out of Start-Sleep.
    • Ctrl+C does not break out of [Threading.Thread]::Sleep. For more information, see Thread.Sleep Method.