TIMEOUT(1)                  General Commands Manual                 TIMEOUT(1)

NAME
       timeout - Start COMMAND, and kill it if still running after DURATION.

SYNOPSIS
       timeout [OPTION] DURATION COMMAND...

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

OPTIONS
       -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
              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 stderr any signal sent upon timeout

       -h, --help
              Print help

       -V, --version
              Print version

       <duration>
              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

       <command>
              a command to execute with optional arguments

EXTRA
       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

VERSION
       v(uutils coreutils) 0.11.0

                                  2026-09-01                        TIMEOUT(1)