https://github.com/dbohdan/random-sleep

Portable POSIX shell script for waiting random amounts of time
https://github.com/dbohdan/random-sleep

posix-shell shell

Last synced: 9 months ago
JSON representation

Portable POSIX shell script for waiting random amounts of time

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/dbohdan/random-sleep
• Owner: dbohdan
• License: mit
• Created: 2024-11-05T12:12:26.000Z (about 1 year ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2024-12-20T14:35:51.000Z (about 1 year ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-12-20T15:43:47.985Z (about 1 year ago)
• Topics: posix-shell, shell
• Language: Shell
• Homepage:
• Size: 12.7 KB
• Stars: 0
• Watchers: 1
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

          
# random-sleep

A portable POSIX shell script for waiting random amounts of time.

This is useful, for example, to prevent your cron jobs from all starting simultaneously, causing the [thundering herd problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundering_herd_problem).

The script requires `/dev/urandom` to provide random bytes.

It has been tested on Alpine Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Ubuntu.

## Installation

Run the following command in the repository to install `random-sleep` to `/usr/local/bin/` if you have sudo.

```shell

sudo make install

```

## Usage

```none

Usage: random-sleep [-h] [-V] [-v] NUMBER[SUFFIX]

Sleep a random whole number of seconds between 0 and NUMBER seconds, minutes,

or hours (inclusive).

Arguments:

  NUMBER[SUFFIX]

          The maximum sleep duration. NUMBER must be a non-negative integer.

The optional SUFFIX must be 's', 'm', or 'h' when present. The suffix is

case-insensitive.

Options:

  -h, --help

          Print this help message and exit.

  -V, --version

          Print the version number and exit.

  -v, --verbose

          Print the generated number of seconds to standard error before

sleeping.

Setting the environment variable 'RANDOM_SLEEP_DEBUG' has the same effect as

the option '-v'/'--verbose'.

```

## License

MIT.

See the file [`LICENSE`](LICENSE).