I have a X.exe
program that takes about 2-6 hours to finish. Exact time is unknown, but I'd like to implement a threshold of 6.5 or 7 hours. If this program does not return any value by this amount of time, it will be killed. How do I implement this using batch *.bat
files?
Here is what I had so far: a timer bat1.bat
and an actual bat2.bat
.
bat1.bat:
start cmd /C bat2.bat & timeout /t 25200 & taskkill /im X.exe /f
bat2.bat:
cd blah
bat1.bat
The problem with this approach is that only after 25200 seconds (or 7 hours) the timer will be stopped, and it won't be terminated before that limit. How do I tell the computer that if the program X.exe
is finished then don't wait anymore?
Any help is appreciated!
I think this is a much simpler solution:
rem Start the process that will kill the X.exe program after 7 hours
start "WaitingToKill" cmd /C timeout /t 25200 ^& taskkill /im X.exe /f
rem Run the X.exe program and wait for it to terminate
X.exe
rem Kill the killer process and terminate
taskkill /fi "WINDOWTITLE eq WaitingToKill" /f
In this method there is not any additional code running at same time; just the waiting state of timeout
command.
EDIT: Some explanations added
Note that both the "WaitingToKill" cmd.exe process with the timeout
command and the X.exe
program are running in parallel. If the timeout
command ends after 7 hours, the taskkill /im X.exe /f
command is executed, the X.exe
program is killed and both cmd.exe processes ends.
If the X.exe
program ends before the 7 hours, the Batch file execute the next line as usual. This line is taskkill /fi "WINDOWTITLE eq WaitingToKill" /f
, so the window with the timeout
command is killed and both cmd.exe processes ends.
thanks to @Squashman i was able to build a script on my own. seem to work fine
@echo off
setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
set /a "checktime=60"
set /a "elapsedtime=0"
set /a "killtime=150"
set XProg=X.exe
start cmd /C runTest.bat
timeout /t 10
:while1
echo Go to WHILE loop.
echo elapsedtime = %elapsedtime%
echo killtime = %killtime%
set /a "timeleft = %killtime% - %elapsedtime%"
echo timeleft = %timeleft%
if /i %timeleft% geq 0 (
tasklist /fi "imagename eq %XProg%" 2>NUL | find /i /n "%XProg%">NUL
if "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
echo %XProg% is still running...
) else (
echo %XProg% is finished before timer.
)
set /a "elapsedtime = elapsedtime + checktime"
timeout /t %checktime%
goto :while1
) else (
taskkill /im %XProg% /f
echo %XProg% is terminated.
)
lessons learned:
1. hard to compare numeric variables in batch (compare diff with 0 instead)
2. terminated first time elaspedtime > killtime
(might be a bit longer than killtime
depending how often it checks)
I've tried various solutions but in the end this is really cumbersome in batch.
If you are willing to use an external tool the simplest way is
"C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\timeout.exe" 5 .\test.exe
It properly returns the exit code of the test process, also works if you spawn multiple test processes simultaneously and does not pop up windows all the time.