---
name: "timeout"
section: "1"
platform: "freebsd"
package: "base"
version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79"
release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/timeout"
---

# timeout(1)

run a command with a time limit

## NAME

**timeout** – run a command with a time limit

## SYNOPSIS

**timeout** \[**-f** \| **--foreground**\] \[**-k** *time* \| **--kill-after** *time*\] \[**-p** \| **--preserve-status**\] \[**-s** *signal* \| **--signal** *signal*\] \[**-v** \| **--verbose**\] *duration* *command* \[*arg* *...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**Timeout** starts the *command* with its *arg* list. If the *command* is still running after *duration*, it is killed by sending the *signal*, or SIGTERM if the **-s** option is unspecified. The special *duration*, zero, signifies no limit. Therefore, a signal is never sent if *duration* is 0.

The signal dispositions inherited by the *command* are the same as the dispositions that **timeout** inherited, except for the signal that will be sent upon timeout, which is reset to take the default action and should terminate the process.

If **timeout** receives the SIGALRM signal, it will behave as if the time limit has been reached and send the specified signal to *command*. For any other signals delivered to **timeout**, it will propagate them to *command*, with the exception of SIGKILL and SIGSTOP. If you want to prevent the *command* from being timed out, send SIGKILL to **timeout**.

The options are as follows:

- **-f**, **--foreground**

  Only time out the *command* itself, but do not propagate signals to its descendants. See the IMPLEMENTATION NOTES section for more details.

- **-k** *time*, **--kill-after** *time*

  Send a SIGKILL signal if *command* is still running after *time* since the first signal was sent.

- **-p**, **--preserve-status**

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

- **-s** *signal*, **--signal** *signal*

  Specify the signal to send on timeout. By default, SIGTERM is sent.

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Show information to [stderr(4)](/stderr/4.md) about timeouts, signals to be sent, and the *command* exits.

### Duration Format

The *duration* and *time* are non-negative integer or real (decimal) numbers, with an optional suffix specifying the unit. Values without an explicit unit are interpreted as seconds.

Supported unit suffixes are:

- **s**

  seconds

- **m**

  minutes

- **h**

  hours

- **d**

  days

## IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

If the **--foreground** option is not specified, **timeout** runs as the reaper (see also [procctl(2)](/procctl/2.md)) of the *command* and its descendants, and will wait for all the descendants to terminate. This behavior might cause surprises if there are descendants running in the background, because they will ignore SIGINT and SIGQUIT signals. For example, the following command that sends a SIGTERM signal will complete in 2 seconds:

```
$ timeout -s TERM 2 sh -c 'sleep 4 & sleep 5'
```

However, this command that sends a SIGINT signal will complete in 4 seconds:

```
$ timeout -s INT 2 sh -c 'sleep 4 & sleep 5'
```

## EXIT STATUS

If the time limit was reached and the **--preserve-status** option is not specified, the exit status is 124. Otherwise, **timeout** exits with the same exit status as the *command*. For example, **timeout** will terminate itself with the same signal if the *command* is terminated by a signal.

If an error occurred, the following exit values are returned:

- 125

  An error other than the two described below occurred. For example, an invalid duration or signal was specified.

- 126

  The *command* was found but could not be executed.

- 127

  The *command* could not be found.

## EXAMPLES

Run [sleep(1)](/sleep/1.md) with a time limit of 4 seconds. Since the command completes in 2 seconds, the exit status is 0:

```
$ timeout 4 sleep 2
$ echo $?
0
```

Run [sleep(1)](/sleep/1.md) for 4 seconds and terminate process after 2 seconds. The exit status is 124 since **--preserve-status** is not used:

```
$ timeout 2 sleep 4
$ echo $?
124
```

Same as above but preserving status. The exit status is 128 + signal number (15 for SIGTERM) for most shells:

```
$ timeout --preserve-status 2 sleep 4
$ echo $?
143
```

Same as above but sending SIGALRM (signal number 14) instead of SIGTERM:

```
$ timeout --preserve-status -s SIGALRM 2 sleep 4
$ echo $?
142
```

Try to [fetch(1)](/fetch/1.md) the PDF version of the FreeBSD Handbook. Send a SIGTERM signal after 1 minute and send a SIGKILL signal 5 seconds later if the process refuses to stop:

```
$ timeout -k 5s 1m fetch \
> https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/doc/en/books/handbook/book.pdf
```

## SEE ALSO

[kill(1)](/kill/1.md), [nohup(1)](/nohup/1.md), [signal(3)](/signal/3.md), [daemon(8)](/daemon/8.md)

## STANDARDS

The **timeout** utility is expected to conform to the IEEE Std 1003.1-2024 (“POSIX.1”) specification.

The **-v** option and long option names are extensions to that specification.

## HISTORY

The **timeout** command first appeared in FreeBSD 10.3.

The initial FreeBSD work was compatible with GNU **timeout** by Padraig Brady, from GNU Coreutils 8.21. The **timeout** utility first appeared in GNU Coreutils 7.0.

## AUTHORS

Baptiste Daroussin ⟨*bapt@FreeBSD.org*⟩, Vsevolod Stakhov ⟨*vsevolod@FreeBSD.org*⟩ and Aaron LI ⟨*aly@aaronly.me*⟩