.\" $OpenBSD: timeout.1,v 1.3 2021/09/04 11:58:31 schwarze Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: timeout.1,v 1.4 2016/10/13 06:22:26 dholland Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2014 Baptiste Daroussin .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $FreeBSD: head/usr.bin/timeout/timeout.1 268861 2014-07-18 22:56:59Z bapt $ .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: September 4 2021 $ .Dt TIMEOUT 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm timeout .Nd run a command with a time limit .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op Fl k Ar time .Op Fl s Ar sig .Op Fl -foreground .Op Fl -preserve-status .Ar duration .Ar command .Op Ar args .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility executes .Ar command , with any .Ar args , and kills it if it is still running after the specified .Ar duration . If .Ar duration is 0, the timeout is disabled. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl k Ar time , Fl -kill-after Ns = Ns Ar time Send a second signal, .Dv SIGKILL , if the command is still running .Ar time after the first signal was sent. .It Fl s Ar sig , Fl -signal Ns = Ns Ar sig Specify the signal to send on timeout, instead of the default .Dv SIGTERM . .It Fl -foreground Do not propagate the timeout signal to children processes. .It Fl -preserve-status Always exit with the same status as .Ar command , even if the timeout was reached. .El .Sh DURATION FORMAT .Ar duration and .Ar time may contain a decimal fraction. The value defaults to seconds unless a unit suffix is given. .Pp The supported unit suffixes are: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact .It s seconds .It m minutes .It h hours .It d days .El .Sh EXIT STATUS If the timeout was not reached or .Fl -preserve-status was set, the exit status of .Ar command is returned. .Pp If the timeout was reached and .Fl -preserve-status was not set, an exit status of 124 is returned. .Pp If .Ar command exited after receiving a signal, the exit status returned is the signal number plus 128. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr kill 1 , .Xr signal 3 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm utility first appeared in GNU Coreutils 7.0 and has been available since .Ox 7.0 .