RUNALARM(1)

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🎀 RUNALARM(1) 🎀

okay bestie, so this is a page from the General Commands Manual, and today's main character is a lil program called runalarm. it's giving "responsible adult with a stopwatch" energy and honestly? we love that for it. 💅

✨ NAME ✨

runalarm — enforce a time limit on execution of a process ⏰

🌸 SYNOPSYS 🌸

(yeah the section is spelled like that, we're not fixing it, we respect the bit 💖)

runalarm [ -h ]

runalarm [ -d ] [ -t timeout ] command [ args ]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically, runalarm tries to execute a command — and if that subprocess does not exit before a timer expires, it tries to terminate that subprocess. that's it, that's the whole vibe: you get a deadline, and if you blow past it, you're done. 🫶

otherwise (aka if the command actually behaves and finishes on time), the exit status of the command is returned. periodt.

💜 USAGE 💜

  • -d — debug mode, babes. sends log messages to standard error as well as to the system log. so you get them in both places, double the drama, double the insight. ✨
  • -t timeout — specifies the duration, in seconds, for runalarm to allow the command to run. the default is a 1d duration, which is 86400 seconds. yes, a whole entire day. yes, that's a lot of seconds. 🌈
  • -h — prints some basic help. it's giving "here's the manual but shorter". 💅

💀 BUGS 💀

real talk, this one matters: sending SIGALRM to runalarm before the timer has expired will cause the subprocess to be killed. no cap. so like, don't do that unless you meant to do that. 😭

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

runlock(1), runstat(1) — go read the whole squad, iykyk 👑

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

runalarm was written by Jamie Wilkinson <jaq@google.com>, based on some Python code by **Craig Silverstein`. iconic collaboration honestly. ⭐

this program is copyright (C) 2000-2010 Google, Inc.

it is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖 this lil slice of the General Commands Manual comes to you from Google, Inc., dated October 18, 2010, and it's the RUNALARM(1) page — go forth and set some timers responsibly. mwah. 💅🦋✨

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