TIMEOUT(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual TIMEOUT(1)
NAME
timeout - run a command with a time limit
SYNOPSIS
timeout [-k time | --kill-after time] [-s sig | --signal sig]
[-v | --verbose] [--foreground] [--preserve-status] duration
command [args ...]
DESCRIPTION
timeout starts the command with its args. If the command is still
running after duration, it is killed. By default, SIGTERM is sent. The
special duration, zero, signifies no limit. Therefore a signal is never
sent if duration is 0.
The options are as follows:
-k time, --kill-after time
Send a SIGKILL signal if command is still running after time
after the first signal was sent.
-s sig, --signal sig
Specify the signal to send on timeout. By default, SIGTERM is
sent.
-v, --verbose
Show information to stderr about any signal sent on timeout.
--foreground
Do not propagate timeout to the children of command.
--preserve-status
Exit with the same status as command, even if it times out and is
killed.
DURATION FORMAT
The duration and time are non-negative integer or real (decimal) numbers,
with an optional unit-specifying suffix. Values without an explicit unit
are interpreted as seconds.
Supported unit symbols are:
s seconds
m minutes
h hours
d days
EXIT STATUS
If the timeout was not reached, the exit status of command is returned.
If the timeout was reached and --preserve-status is set, the exit status
of command is returned. If --preserve-status is not set, an exit status
of 124 is returned.
If an invalid parameter is passed to -s or -k, the exit status returned
is 125.
If command is an otherwise invalid program, the exit status returned is
126.
If command refers to a non-existing program, the exit status returned is
127.
If command exits after receiving a signal, the exit status returned is
the signal number plus 128.
EXAMPLES
Run sleep(1) with a time limit of 4 seconds. Since the command completes
in 2 seconds, the exit status is 0:
$ timeout 4 sleep 2
$ echo $?
0
Run sleep(1) for 4 seconds and terminate process after 2 seconds. 124 is
returned since no --preserve-status is used:
$ timeout 2 sleep 4
$ echo $?
124
Same as above but preserving status. Exit status is 128 + signal number
(15 for SIGTERM):
$ timeout --preserve-status 2 sleep 4
$ echo $?
143
Same as above but sending SIGALRM (signal number 14) instead of SIGTERM:
$ timeout --preserve-status -s SIGALRM 2 sleep 4
$ echo $?
142
Try to fetch(1) the PDF version of the FreeBSD Handbook. Send a SIGTERM
signal after 1 minute and send a SIGKILL signal 5 seconds later if the
process refuses to stop:
$ timeout -k 5s 1m fetch \
> https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/doc/en/books/handbook/book.pdf
SEE ALSO
kill(1), nohup(1), signal(3), daemon(8)
STANDARDS
The timeout utility is compliant with the specification.
HISTORY
The timeout command first appeared in FreeBSD 10.3.
The FreeBSD work is compatible with GNU timeout by Padraig Brady, from
GNU Coreutils 8.21. The timeout utility first appeared in GNU Coreutils
7.0.
AUTHORS
Baptiste Daroussin <
[email protected]> and
Vsevolod Stakhov <
[email protected]>
FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 January 4, 2025 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8