caffeinate

Prevent the system from sleeping

TLDR

Prevent the system from sleeping indefinitely

$ caffeinate

Prevent display from sleeping

$ caffeinate -d

Prevent idle sleep for a duration (seconds)

$ caffeinate -t [3600]

Prevent sleep while a command runs

$ caffeinate -i [make]

Prevent sleep while a process is running (by PID)

$ caffeinate -w [pid]

Prevent system sleep on AC power

$ caffeinate -s

SYNOPSIS

caffeinate [-disu] [-t timeout] [-w pid] [utility [arguments]]

caffeinate creates assertions to prevent the system from sleeping. When called with a utility argument, it runs the command and holds the assertion until the command exits. Without a utility, it holds the assertion until it is terminated (Ctrl+C).Multiple flags can be combined (e.g., -di) to create multiple assertions simultaneously.

PARAMETERS

-d

Prevent the display from sleeping.

-i

Prevent the system from idle sleeping.

-s

Prevent the system from sleeping (AC power only).

-m

Prevent the disk from idle sleeping.

-u

Declare that user is active, simulating user activity.

-t timeout

Timeout in seconds after which the assertion is dropped.

-w pid

Wait for the process with the given PID to exit before releasing the assertion.

CAVEATS

This is a macOS command. Only prevents sleep while the command is running. The -s flag only works on AC power. Without any flags, caffeinate creates an assertion to prevent idle sleep.