.\" $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 July 19, 2014 .Dt TIMEOUT 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm timeout .Nd run a command with a time limit .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op Fl Fl signal Ar sig | Fl s Ar sig .Op Fl Fl preserve-status .Op Fl Fl kill-after Ar time | Fl k Ar time .Op Fl Fl foreground .Ao Ar duration Ac .Ao Ar command Ac .Ao Ar args ... Ac .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm starts the .Ar command with its .Ar args . If .Ar command is still running after .Ar duration , it is killed. By default, .Dv SIGTERM is sent. .Bl -tag -width "-k time, --kill-after time" .It Fl Fl preserve-status Always exits with the same status as .Ar command even if it times out. .It Fl Fl foreground Do not propagate timeout to the .Ar command children. .It Fl s Ar sig , Fl Fl signal Ar sig Specify the signal to send on timeout. By default, .Dv SIGTERM is sent. .It Fl k Ar time , Fl Fl kill-after Ar time Send a second kill signal if .Ar command is still running after .Ar time after the first signal was sent. .El .Sh DURATION FORMAT .Ar duration and .Ar time can be integer or decimal numbers. Values without unit symbols are interpreted as seconds. .Pp Supported unit symbols are: .Bl -tag -width indent -compact .It s seconds .It m minutes .It h hours .It d days .El .Sh EXIT STATUS If the timeout was not reached, the exit status of .Ar command is returned. .Pp If the timeout was reached and .Fl Fl preserve-status is set, the exit status of .Ar command is returned. If .Fl Fl preserve-status is not set, an exit status of 124 is returned. .Pp If .Ar command exits 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 A .Nm utility appeared in a development branch of .Fx 11 and was imported into .Nx 7 . The .Fx work is compatible with GNU .Nm by .An Padraig Brady , from GNU Coreutils 8.21. The .Nm utility first appeared in GNU Coreutils 7.0.