| TIMEOUT(1) | General Commands Manual | TIMEOUT(1) | 
NAME
 timeout — run a command with a time limit
SYNOPSIS
| timeout | [--signal sig | -s sig] [--preserve-status] [--kill-after time | -k time] [--foreground] <duration> <command> <args ...> | 
 
DESCRIPTION
 timeout starts the 
command with its 
args. If 
command is still running after 
duration, it is killed. By default, 
SIGTERM. is sent.
- 
--preserve-status
- 
Always exits with the same status as command even if it times out.
- 
--foreground
- 
Do not propagate timeout to the command children.
- 
-s sig, --signal sig
- 
Specify the signal to send on timeout. By default, SIGTERM. is sent.
- 
-k time, --kill-after time
- 
Send a second kill signal if command is still running after time after the first signal was sent.
 
DURATION FORMAT
 duration and 
time can be integer or decimal numbers. Values without unit symbols 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 command exits after receiving a signal, the exit status returned is the signal number plus 128.
 
HISTORY
 A timeout utility appeared in a development branch of FreeBSD 11 and was imported into NetBSD 7. 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.