Cheat Sheet logoCheat Sheet Today
Bash Scripting Patterns and Practical Recipes/Bound command runtime

Stop a command if it runs too long.

Back to sheetBrowse commands
Sign in to save
Section: Automation Recipes

Bound command runtime

bash
bash
timeout 30s bash -lc 'long_running_job'
Explanation

Very useful in automation, though timeout is an external command.

View in sheet →

Learn the surrounding workflow

Compare similar commands or jump into common fixes when this command is part of a bigger troubleshooting path.

Compare commandsView fixes

Related commands

Same sheet · prioritizing Automation Recipes
Retry command with delay
Retry a command several times before giving up.
OpenIn sheetbashsame section
Use Bash with jq safely
Combine Bash with jq for reliable JSON parsing.
OpenIn sheetbashsame section
Run two jobs in parallel and wait
Start jobs in background and wait for both.
OpenIn sheetbashsame section
Generate config with variable expansion
Create small config files from shell variables.
OpenIn sheetbashsame section
Portable Bash shebang
Use env to locate Bash on PATH.
OpenIn sheetbash
Create temp file
Create a secure temporary file.
OpenIn sheetbash