WAITFOR.exe – Windows CMD Command

Wait for or send a signal. Waitfor is used to synchronize events between one or more networked computers.

Syntax
   Wait for a signal:
      waitfor [/t Timeout] SignalName

   Send a signal:
      waitfor [/s Computer [/u [Domain\]User [/p [Password]]]] /si SignalName

Key
   /s Computer  The name or IP address of the computer to signal
                (do not include backslashes).

   /u User      Run the script using the credentials of the specified user account.
                By default, waitfor uses the current user's credentials.

   /p [Password] The password of the user account specified with /u

   /si          Send the signal across the network to waiting machines.

   /t Timeout   Number of seconds to wait for a signal.
                The valid range is 1 - 99999 (27.7 hours)
                default = wait indefinitely.

   SignalName   The signal that waitfor waits for or sends.
                SignalName is not case-sensitive.

   /?           Display help.

Signal names cannot exceed 225 characters. Valid characters include a-z, A-Z, 0-9, the SignalName is not case-sensitive.

If the command line includes /s Computer, the signal will be broadcast only to the specified system rather than all the computers across the domain. On large domains or wide area networks this will reduce unnecessary network traffic.

To cancel WAITFOR before its timeout has been reached, either launch Waitfor /si signal from a separate command-prompt or KILL the session.

You can run multiple instances of WAITFOR on a single computer, but each instance must wait for a different signal. Only one instance of WAITFOR can wait for a given signal on a given computer. Computers can only receive signals if they are in the same domain as the computer sending the signal.

Batch scripts including WAITFOR can be run as Scheduled tasks under the SYSTEM account.

Typical WAITFOR applications include waiting for large ROBOCOPY jobs to complete, restarting services across a cluster/farm, FTP or BITS downloads, compiling software builds etc.

Examples

Wait for 60 seconds or until the “simon” signal is received on the local computer:

C:\> waitfor /t 60 simon

Activate the “simon” signal on the local computer:

C:\> waitfor /s %computername% /si simon

Wait for 1 hour or until the “backupComplete” signal is received on the local computer:

C:\> waitfor /t 3600 BackupComplete

Activate the “backupComplete” signal on the computer Server64:

C:\> waitfor /s Server64 /si backupComplete