Malcolm, I was thinking along the same lines. The equivalent in bash is something like:-
$ timeout=10; docommand blah1 blah2 blah3 & sleep $timeout; kill %% But there is a problem in that if docommand finishes before the timeout expires then you still hang around sleeping. So you need to timeout the sleep process - catch 22. (I think your zsh exhibits the same issue). If docommand finishes early you need to figure out a way to kill the sleep proces, Martin Visser Technology Consultant Consulting & Integration Technology Solutions Group - HP Services 410 Concord Road Rhodes NSW 2138 Australia Mobile: +61-411-254-513 Fax: +61-2-9022-1800 E-mail: martin.visserAThp.com This email (including any attachments) is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above and may contain information that is confidential, proprietary or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify HP immediately by return email and then delete the email, destroy any printed copy and do not disclose or use the information in it. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Malcolm V Sent: Monday, 8 May 2006 5:48 PM To: SLUG Subject: Re: [SLUG] timing out a process with timeout On Monday 08 May 2006 15:48, Jeff Waugh allegedly wrote: > Hey, > > I just asked a question on #slug and found my answer in an apt-cache > search mere moments later. Figured it would be handy for others (you > lot and anyone who finds this in the archives later)... In zsh, docommand blah blah1 blah2 &;sleep some_num;kill $\! (or something close to that) I'm sure most shells support something like the above. Note, sleep is inaccurate. I'm sure timeout is much nicer then the above, but it did make me wonder about package management and how the various distributions deal with merging small useful utilities into general utility packages rather then bloating their package trees with mountains of tiny packages. (And the problems of grouping unrelated utilities and the confusion the could cause between distros). Not sure why I wrote this now. Cheers, Malcolm V. -- BOFH Excuse #115: your keyboard's space bar is generating spurious keycodes. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
