@@ -1256,8 +1256,13 @@ function screen_process {

     # sleep to allow bash to be ready to be send the command - we are

     # creating a new window in screen and then sends characters, so if

-    # bash isn't running by the time we send the command, nothing happens

-    sleep 3

+    # bash isn't running by the time we send the command, nothing

+    # happens.  This sleep was added originally to handle gate runs

+    # where we needed this to be at least 3 seconds to pass

+    # consistently on slow clouds. Now this is configurable so that we

+    # can determine a reasonable value for the local case which should

+    # be much smaller.

+    sleep ${SCREEN_SLEEP:-3}

     NL=`echo -ne '\015'`

     # This fun command does the following: