Software⏱️ 2 min read📅 2026-05-31

How to Fix: Timeout command on Mac OS X?

Alternative to timeout command on Mac OS X for running a command for a specified amount of time.

Quick Answer: Use 'xterm -time 10' or 'osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to do script "ping google.com" with timeout 10'

📋 Table of Contents

  1. 🔍 Why This Happens
  2. 🔧 Proven Troubleshooting Steps
  3. 💡 Conclusion

On Mac OS X, the timeout command is not available by default. This is because the timeout command is a Linux utility and does not have an equivalent on macOS.

🔍 Why This Happens

  • The timeout command uses a system call that is not available on macOS.

🔧 Proven Troubleshooting Steps

Method 1: Using the 'at' Command

  1. Step 1: Open the Terminal app on your Mac and type `at -f /path/to/your/script.sh 10m` to run a command for 10 minutes.

Method 2: Using 'sleep' Command

  1. Step 1: Open the Terminal app on your Mac and type `sleep 600` to pause the execution of a command for 10 minutes.

💡 Conclusion

By using the 'at' or 'sleep' commands, you can achieve similar functionality to the timeout command on Mac OS X.

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