Countdown Clock

MIN=10;for ((i=MIN*60;i>=0;i--));do echo -ne "\r$(date -d"0+$i sec" +%H:%M:%S)";sleep 1;done

Countdown clock - Counts down from $MIN minutes to zero. I let the date command do the maths. This version doesn't use seq.

Sample Output

00:09:59

By: flatcap

2011-02-20 11:56:28

echo sleep date sleep timer for printf counter

4 Alternatives + Submit Alt

Countdown Clock

Simple countdown clock that should be quite portable across any Bourne-compatible shell. I used to teach for a living, and I would run this code when it was time for a break. Usually, I would set "MIN" to 15 for a 15-minute break. The computer would be connected to a projector, so this would be projected on screen, front and center, for all to see. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
60, 59, 58, 57, 56, 55, 54, 53, 52, 51, 50, 49, 48, 47, 46, 45, 44, 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 

BOOOM! Time to start.
```
12

MIN=1 && for i in $(seq $(($MIN*60)) -1 1); do echo -n "$i, "; sleep 1; done; echo -e "\n\nBOOOM! Time to start."

atoponce · 2010-06-20 15:19:12 177
Countdown Clock

The biggest advantage over atoponce's nifty original is not killing the scrollback. Written assuming bash, but shouldn't be terribly difficult to port to other shells. S should be multiple spaces, but I can't get commandlinefu to save/show them properly, any help?
This is sample output - yours may be different.
1

function countdown { case "$1" in -s) shift;; *) set $(($1 * 60));; esac; local S=" "; for i in $(seq "$1" -1 1); do echo -ne "$S\r $i\r"; sleep 1; done; echo -e "$S\rBOOM!"; }

kniht · 2010-06-30 12:20:01 4
Countdown Clock
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

MIN=10 && for i in $(seq $(($MIN*60)) -1 1); do printf "\r%02d:%02d:%02d" $((i/3600)) $(( (i/60)%60)) $((i%60)); sleep 1; done

bugmenot · 2011-02-20 10:24:22 2
Countdown Clock

I find the other timers are inaccurate. It takes some microseconds to perform the date function. Therefore, using date/time math to calculate the time for us results in millisecond accuracy. This is tailored to the BusyBox date function. May need to change things around for GNU date function. Show Sample Output
This is sample output - yours may be different.
```
00:03:00
```
-1

let T=$(date +%s)+3*60;while [ $(date +%s) -le $T ]; do let i=$T-$(date +%s); echo -ne "\r$(date -d"0:0:$i" +%H:%M:%S)"; sleep 0.3; done

davidk · 2019-10-22 15:04:21 65

What Others Think

wonderful, I made a function out of it to be more variable: countdown () { MIN=$1; for ((i=$((MIN*60));i>=0;i--));do echo -ne "\r$(date -d"0+$i sec" +%H:%M:%S)";sleep 1;done;} to call it with "countdown 10" for 10 min, "countdown 5" for 5 min, ... thx

tcfusion · 630 weeks and 6 days ago

You're already in an arithmetic context in the for statement. There's no need for $(()): MIN=10;for ((i=MIN*60;i>=0;i--));do echo -ne "\r$(date -d"0+$i sec" +%H:%M:%S)";sleep 1;done

dennisw · 629 weeks and 4 days ago

@dennisw: Very good point. Thanks for that. I've updated the command.

flatcap · 629 weeks and 4 days ago

test this! MIN=1;for ((i=MIN*60;i>=0;i--));do echo -ne "\r$(date -d"0+$i sec" +%H:%M:%S)";sleep 1;ls ; done

el3ctron · 627 weeks and 3 days ago

Hi, How do I get this to work on Ksh88 :-(-

newbie01linux · 549 weeks and 2 days ago

hi flatcap do you know how I can get your command to work in ksh88?

newbie01linux · 549 weeks and 2 days ago

@newbie01linux: Sorry, I don't know and I don't have access to ksh88. Fedora has ksh93 and the command works in that.

flatcap · 549 weeks and 2 days ago

seofox · 59 weeks and 3 days ago

seofox · 59 weeks ago

seofox · 58 weeks and 4 days ago

rahimhh21 · 29 weeks and 6 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 20 weeks and 5 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 20 weeks and 5 days ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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