0001586: timeout - new utility: run a command with a time limit

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Category

Severity

Type

Date Submitted

Last Update

0001586

[1003.1(2016/18)/Issue7+TC2] Shell and Utilities

Editorial

Enhancement Request

2022-05-14 22:07

Reporter

steffen

View Status

public

Assigned To

Priority

normal

Resolution

Open

Status

New

Name

steffen

Organization

User Reference

Section

Vol. 3: Shell and Utilities

Page Number

Line Number

(Line or range of lines)

Interp Status

---

Final Accepted Text

Summary

0001586: timeout - new utility: run a command with a time limit

Description

As of today it is very complicated to reliably run a program from within
a sh(1)ell with a timeout, a sh(1)ell can only hardly kill a child after
a timeout without introducing a race, as shown in issue #1585.

All modern operating systems (to my knowledge) therefore ship
a timeout(1) command for some time, which can be used to reliably run
a program with a timeout set.

Desired Action

Add the timeout utility.
Here is the current manual page as present on OpenBSD, taken from
FreeBSD, under 2-clause BSD license:

NAME
     timeout – run a command with a time limit

SYNOPSIS
     timeout [-k time] [-s sig] [--foreground] [--preserve-status] duration
             command [args]

DESCRIPTION
     The timeout utility executes command, with any args, and kills it if it
     is still running after the specified duration. If duration is 0, the
     timeout is disabled.

     The options are as follows:

     -k time
             Send a second signal, SIGKILL, if the command is still running
             time after the first signal was sent.

             SIGTERM.

     --foreground
             Do not propagate the timeout signal to children processes.

     --preserve-status
             Always exit with the same status as command, even if the timeout
             was reached.

DURATION FORMAT
     duration and time may contain a decimal fraction. The value defaults to
     seconds unless a unit suffix is given.

     The supported unit suffixes are:

           s seconds
           m minutes
           h hours
           d days

EXIT STATUS
     If the timeout was not reached or --preserve-status was set, the exit
     status of command is returned.

     If the timeout was reached and --preserve-status was not set, an exit
     status of 124 is returned.

     If command exited after receiving a signal, the exit status returned is
     the signal number plus 128.

Issue History
Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2022-05-14 22:07	steffen	New Issue
2022-05-14 22:07	steffen	Name	=> steffen
2022-05-14 22:07	steffen	Section	=> Vol. 3: Shell and Utilities
2022-05-14 22:07	steffen	Line Number	=> (Line or range of lines)

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