If shell escaping of the command is problematic, you can write the command to a file first: batch <somefile Or read it: read -re && echo "$REPLY" | batch Or, if your shell supports it, you can eliminate echo: read -re && batch <<<$REPLY ("man batch" lists 1.5 for me, but I don't know how widely it differs.)

Replace 500ms by the desired delay. To remove it: sudo tc qdisc del dev lo root netem delay 500ms

[ 2000 -ge "$(free -m | awk '/buffers.cache:/ {print $4}')" ] returns true if less than 2000 MB of RAM are available, so adjust this number to your needs. [ $(echo "$(uptime | awk '{print $10}' | sed -e 's/,$//' -e 's/,/./') >= $(grep -c ^processor /proc/cpuinfo)" | bc) -eq 1 ] returns true if the current machine load is at least equal to the number of CPUs. If either of the tests returns true we wait 10 seconds and check again. If both tests return false, i.e. 2GB are available and machine load falls below number of CPUs, we start our command and save it's output in a text file. The ( ( ... ) & ) construct lets the command run in background even if we log out. See http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/3115/ .

the "delay" utility is an invaluable tool for me. with gnu-screen it allows you to schedule something and have it run and output to the current terminal, unlike "at". You can also use it like "sleep" with seconds and also with date: delay until 13:33 friday && echo test get it from: http://onegeek.org/~tom/software/delay/current/delay.c (author: Tom Rothamel)