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 seconds (the default), 'm' for minutes, 'h' for hours or 'd' for days. A duration of 0 disables the associated timeout.

Upon timeout, send the TERM signal to COMMAND, if no other SIGNAL specified. 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 © 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'