.\" Copyright (c) 2004 by Ian Piumarta
.\" All rights reserved.
.\" 
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.\" Last edited: 2007-08-30 13:35:39 by piumarta on vps2.piumarta.com
.\"
.TH SAFE 1 "May 2004" "Version 1.0"
.SH NAME
safe \- execute a command with timeout
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B safe
.B [\-timeout]
.I command [args...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I safe
runs the specified
.I command
with a timeout.  If the
.I command
does not finish before the timeout expires,
.I safe
prints 'timeout' and kills the command.  The default timeout is one second.
.SH OPTIONS
.I safe
provides the following option:
.TP
.B \-timeout
sets the timeout before the
.I command
is killed.  The 
.B timeout
is in seconds and can be a floating-point number for sub-second timeouts.  If no 
.B timeout
is specified then
.I safe
uses one second.
.SH EXAMPLES
The command
.nf

    safe sleep 10

.fi
will kill the
.I sleep
command after one second, whereas
.nf

    safe -0.33 sleep 10

.fi
will kill it after approximately one third of a second.
.nf

    safe -5 sleep 1

.fi
will run the sleep command to completion.  Obviously,
.I sleep
is  not a very interesting application of
.IR safe .
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR kill (1).
.SH AUTHOR
.I safe
and this manual page were written by Ian Piumarta (first-name at
last-name dot com) based on the memory of something similar (with the
same name) floating around the 'net in the late 1980s.
.PP
Please send bug reports and suggestions for improvements to the author
at the above address.