This little scirpt simply counts down andthen executes a command.

#!/bin/env python import sys import time import subprocess backspace="\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b" def SecToWdhms(seconds):   m,s = divmod(int(seconds), 60)   h,m = divmod(m, 60)   #d,h = divmod(h, 24)   #w,d = divmod(d, 7)   hms=str(str(h)+":"+str(m)+":"+str(s))   return hms def Usage():   print ""   print "Description:"   print "Count down to 0 and execute a command."   print "Usage:"   print sys.argv[0]+" <seconds> <command and parameters no quotes>"   print "seconds may be expressed as <hr>:<mn>:<sc>"   print "" def ErrorOut(errorText=""):   if len(errorText) > 0:       print str(errorText)   Usage()   sys.exit() # verify we got some arguments if len(sys.argv) < 3:   ErrorOut() seconds=sys.argv[1] command=sys.argv[2] # Check integrity of the first parameter (time) if str(seconds).find(":") > 0:   # Convert x:x:x to a large number of seconds   seconds=str(seconds).split(":")   if len(seconds) < 3:       ErrorOut()   seconds=int(int(seconds[0])*3600+int(seconds[1])*60+int(seconds[2])) elif not seconds.isdigit():   ErrorOut() # count down for second in range(0, int(seconds)):   print backspace,   sys.stdout.flush()   secondsLeft=SecToWdhms(str(int(seconds) - int(second)))   print "Time left -> "+str(secondsLeft),   sys.stdout.flush()   time.sleep(1) print backspace, print "Running command "+command # Put the rest of the command line after the command. arguments=[command] if len(sys.argv) > 3:   arguments+=sys.argv[3:] # Execute the command subprocess.call(arguments) # dummy print to get the command line to come back after the above command runs. print ""