grep + add time out after some time if not find the relevant match

Question

Dear friends

I use the following command syntax to search params in my script

grep -qsRw -m1 "any_param" /dir/..../

Some times the search take avery long time The question is how to add time out to grep command

For example after 20 seconds grep will break out

If it not illegal to add time out to grep , how it will possible on other way?

THX Yael

Answer 1

There is a Linux command timeout that can do this for you. Just run

timeout 20s grep -qsRw -m1 "any param" /dir/.../

EDIT: If you don't have access to timeout, you could try this:

grep -qsRw -m1 "any param" /dir/.../ & sleep 20; kill %1

Afterwards, the process ID of the grep command will be available as the Bash variable $!. (I assume you're running Bash... if not, it'd help to specify your shell in the question)