TIMEOUT(1)			  User Commands			      TIMEOUT(1)

NAME
     timeout - run a command with a time limit

SYNOPSIS
     timeout [OPTION]... DURATION COMMAND [ARG]...

DESCRIPTION
     Start COMMAND, and kill it if still running after DURATION.

     Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

     -f, --foreground
	    when not running timeout directly from a shell prompt, allow COMMAND
	    to	read from the TTY and get 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

     -p, --preserve-status
	    exit  with	the  same status as COMMAND, even when the command times
	    out

     -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

     -v, --verbose
	    diagnose to standard error any signal sent upon timeout

     --help
	    display this help and exit

     --version
	    output version information and exit

     DURATION  is  a floating point number with an optional suffix: 's' for sec-
     onds (the default), 'm' for minutes, 'h' for hours or 'd' for days.  A  du-
     ration of 0 disables the associated timeout.

     Upon  timeout,  send  the TERM signal to COMMAND, if no other SIGNAL speci-
     fied.  The TERM signal kills any process that does not block or catch  that
     signal.   It  may	be  necessary  to use the KILL signal, since this signal
     can't be caught.

   Exit status:
     124    if COMMAND times out, and --preserve-status is not specified

     125    if the timeout command itself fails

     126    if COMMAND is found but cannot be invoked

     127    if COMMAND cannot be found

     137    if COMMAND (or timeout itself) is sent the KILL (9) signal (128+9)

     -	    the exit status of COMMAND otherwise

BUGS
     Some platforms don't currently support timeouts beyond the year 2038.

AUTHOR
     Written by Padraig Brady.

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

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright (C) 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.	License GPLv3+: GNU  GPL
     version 3 or later <https://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)

     Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/timeout>
     or available locally via: info '(coreutils) timeout invocation'

GNU coreutils 9.11		   April 2026			      TIMEOUT(1)