---
name: "timed-process"
section: "1p"
platform: "linux"
package: "libproc-background-perl"
version: "1.32-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/timed-process"
---

# timed-process(1p)

Run background process for limited amount of time

## NAME

timed-process - Run background process for limited amount of time

## SYNOPSIS

```
    timed-process [-e exit_status] timeout command [<arg> [<arg> ...]]
```

## DESCRIPTION

This script runs *command* for a specified amount of time and if it doesn't finish, it kills the process.  If *command* runs and exits before the given timeout, **timed-process** returns the exit value of *command*.  If *command* did not exit before *timeout* seconds, then **timed-process** will kill the process and returns an exit value of 255, unless the -e command line option is set, which instructs **timed-process** to return a different exit value.  This allows the user of **timed-process** to determine if the process ended normally or was killed.