Windows batch: analogue for `timeout` command

Question

I'm trying to find out how to limit a program execution time within a Windows batch file. Is there something like Unix timeout command? Please advise.

Answer 1

To limit the time a program has to run you could do something like this

start yourprogram.exe
timeout /t 10
taskkill /im yourprogram.exe /f

That starts yourprogram.exe, waits 10 seconds, then kills the program.

Answer 2

I just installed Cygwin and use unix-style timeout command from the distribution.