runalarm.1

.\" -*- nroff -*-
.TH RUNALARM 1 "October 18, 2010" "Google, Inc."

.SH NAME

runalarm \- enforce a time limit on execution of a process

.SH SYNOPSYS

\fBrunalarm\fR [ \fB-h\fR ]

\fBrunalarm\fR [ \fB-d\fR ] [ \fB-t \fItimeout\fR ] \fIcommand\fR [ \fIargs\fR ]

.SH DESCRIPTION

\fBrunalarm\fR tries to execute a command and, if the subprocess does
not exit before a timer expires, tries to terminate that subprocess.
Otherwise, the exit status of the command is returned.

.SH USAGE

.TP
\fB-d\fR

Debug mode; send log messages to standard error as well as to the
system log.

.TP
\fB-t \fItimeout\fR

Specifies the duration, in seconds, for \fBrunalarm\fR to allow the
command to run.  The default is 1d duration (86400 seconds).

.TP
\fB-h\fR

Prints some basic help.

.SH BUGS

Sending SIGALRM to \fBrunalarm\fR before the timer has expired will
cause the subprocess to be killed.

.SH SEE ALSO

\fBrunlock\fR(1), \fBrunstat\fR(1)

.SH AUTHOR

\fBrunalarm\fR was written by Jamie Wilkinson <jaq@google.com>, based on some Python
code by Craig Silverstein

.SH COPYRIGHT

This program is copyright (C) 2000-2010 Google, Inc.
.PP
It is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0