timeout flags & options

Basic usage

Kill a command after a duration. Supports s, m, h, d suffixes.

timeout 10s ping example.com

timeout 5m ./long_script.sh

-s, --signal

Send a specific signal instead of SIGTERM.

timeout -s SIGKILL 30s ./process

timeout -s 9 10s ./stubborn_process

-k, --kill-after

If the process doesn't stop after the initial signal, send SIGKILL after this duration.

timeout -k 5s 30s ./process

--preserve-status

Exit with the same status as the command, even if it timed out.

timeout --preserve-status 10s ./test.sh

--foreground

Don't create a background process group. Useful when timeout is not the direct child of the shell.

timeout --foreground 60s ./interactive_script.sh

Check if command timed out

timeout exits with status 124 if the command timed out.

timeout 5s sleep 10; [ $? -eq 124 ] && echo "Timed out"

Common patterns

timeout 30s curl -o file.zip https://example.com/file.zip

timeout 2m make -j4