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 receive 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

       --help
              display this help and exit

       --version
              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.

       If the command times out, and --preserve-status is not set, then  exit  with  status  124.
       Otherwise,  exit  with  the  status  of COMMAND.  If no signal is specified, send the TERM
       signal upon timeout.  The TERM signal kills any process that does not block or catch  that
       signal.   It  may  be  necessary  to  use the KILL (9) signal, since this signal cannot be
       caught, in which case the exit status is 128+9 rather than 124.

BUGS

       Some platforms don't curently support timeouts beyond 2038

AUTHOR

       Written by Padraig Brady.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report timeout bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org
       GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
       Report timeout translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+:  GNU  GPL  version  3  or
       later <http://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)

       The full documentation for timeout is maintained as a Texinfo manual.   If  the  info  and
       timeout programs are properly installed at your site, the command

              info coreutils 'timeout invocation'

       should give you access to the complete manual.