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shellcroncron-task

How to limit shell script execution time?

I have a scheduled cron job (which is actually a shell script). I'd like to limit the script execution time as it can work unacceptably long. For some reason I can not limit the script execution time from inside the script. Actually, I want my system to force the task termination if it runs more than N hours. Please advise.

Solution

  • I'm responding by myself just because none answered.

    0 * * * * timeout -s 9 3540 /path/to/your_command.sh

    will send a SIGINT to your command if it hasn't completed in 59 minutes.