`cat & wait` in a script proceeds immediately

Question

From the command line, typing cat waits for user input. But in the following script, wait ignores the background process.

#!/bin/bash
cat &
wait
echo "After wait"

This script immediately blasts right past the wait command. How can I make wait actually wait for the cat command to finish? I've tried waiting for the specific PID or job number, but the effect is the same.

What is it that you're trying to do exactly? There might be a completely different way to go about it. — Tom Fenech, Sep 08 '14 at 16:51

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 08 '14 at 16:51

3

That's because cat is exiting right away, because stdin is not inherited. Try this instead:

cat <&0 &

answered Sep 08 '14 at 16:51

vanza

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`cat & wait` in a script proceeds immediately

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