And you might find that the "at" command is better choice for timing than "sleep" or cron. For example: mpg123 lecture.mp3 & SOUNDPROC=$! at now+2hours << End_of_here_document # Or: # at 9:30pm << End_of_here_document kill $SOUNDPROC End_of_here_document On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, James R. Van Zandt wrote: > One way to limit the duration of a command is to run it in a > subprocess (i.e. put the shell command in parentheses) and have the > parent kill it. Here's an example: > > #!/bin/bash > # try to send a string to the synthesizer via four different serial > #ports > for x in 0 1 2 3; do > (DTK_PORT=/dev/ttyS$x > echo "trying $DTK_PORT" > stty sane 9600 raw -echo crtscts <$DTK_PORT &&\ > stty -echo <$DTK_PORT &&\ > stty ixon ixoff <$DTK_PORT &&\ > echo "this is /dev/t t y s $x" $'\r' >$DTK_PORT )& > # if one of the above commands hangs, kill the process > sleep 2; kill $! >/dev/null 2>&1 > done -- L. C. Robinson reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@onewest.net.invalid People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and instability instead. This is award winning "innovation". Find out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see "CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html