Answer:

• Its syntax is as follows.

     timeout [OPTION] DURATION COMMAND [ARG]...
  

• to timeout a ping command after 5 seconds, you can run the following command.

    # timeout 5s ping google.com
  

Sometimes commands may continue to run even after timeout sends the initial signal. In such instances, you can use the --kill-after option.

         -k, --kill-after=DURATION

For example, the command shown is going to be terminated after 8 seconds.

# timeout 8s tail -f /var/log/syslog