Run a Command with Timeout

Sometimes, you need to run a command and kill if it runs too long.

The best approach I've found for doing this is to use a context with a timeout combined with exec.CommandContext:

 1package main
 2
 3import (
 4    "context"
 5    "os/exec"
 6)
 7
 8func main() {
 9    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 1*time.Second)
10    defer cancel()
11
12    cmd := exec.CommandContext(ctx, "sleep", "5")
13
14    out, err := cmd.CombinedOutput()
15
16    if (ctx.Err() == context.DeadlineExceeded) {
17        // Command was killed
18    }
19
20    if err != nil {
21        // If the command was killed, err will be "signal: killed"
22        // If the command wasn't killed, it contains the actual error, e.g. invalid command
23    }
24}

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