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TIMEOUT(1) User Commands TIMEOUT(1)

NAME

timeout - run a command with a time limit

SYNOPSIS

timeout [OPTION] DURATION COMMAND [ARG]...
timeout [OPTION]

DESCRIPTION

Start COMMAND, and kill it if still running after DURATION.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

--preserve-status

exit with the same status as COMMAND, even when the
command times out

--foreground

when not running timeout directly from a shell prompt,
allow COMMAND to read from the TTY and get TTY signals; in this mode, children of COMMAND will not be timed out

-k, --kill-after=DURATION

also send a KILL signal if COMMAND is still running
this long after the initial signal was sent

-s, --signal=SIGNAL

specify the signal to be sent on timeout;
SIGNAL may be a name like 'HUP' or a number; see 'kill -l' for a list of signals
diagnose to stderr any signal sent upon timeout
display this help and exit
output version information and exit

DURATION is a floating point number with an optional suffix: 's' for seconds (the default), 'm' for minutes, 'h' for hours or 'd' for days. A duration of 0 disables the associated timeout.

Upon timeout, send the TERM signal to COMMAND, if no other SIGNAL specified. The TERM signal kills any process that does not block or catch that signal. It may be necessary to use the KILL signal, since this signal can't be caught.

Exit status:

124
if COMMAND times out, and --preserve-status is not specified
125
if the timeout command itself fails
126
if COMMAND is found but cannot be invoked
127
if COMMAND cannot be found
137
if COMMAND (or timeout itself) is sent the KILL (9) signal (128+9)
-
the exit status of COMMAND otherwise

BUGS

Some platforms don't currently support timeouts beyond the year 2038.

AUTHOR

Written by Padraig Brady.

REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

kill(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/timeout>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) timeout invocation'

September 2024 GNU coreutils 9.5