linux man page for timeout

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.

       -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 an integer with an optional suffix: `s' for seconds(the default), `m' for minutes, `h' for hours or `d' for days.

       If the command times out, 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.  For other processes, it may be necessary
       to use the KILL (9) signal, since this signal cannot be caught.

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 (C) 2010 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.

GNU coreutils 8.5						   February 2011							TIMEOUT(1)