Automatically close application after custom time?

Question

Is there a way to automatically close a certain application after custom time?

Update: i.e. stop the Audioplayer after a certain time.

Answer 1

Install gnome-schedule from the Ubuntu Software Center, load the program from Applications > System Tools. Use it to add an entry for the time you want the program to be closed like so:

This will kill all instances of firefox at a certain date/time, you can also have reoccurring events that kill off certain programs at certain times, for instance to encourage kids to not browse the internet or for killing certain games.

It is possible to do this kind of thing from the commandline too, but you need to know how to use crontab -l and how to write cron lines.

Answer 2

Perhaps you could alias the applicaton, or change its start up, so it fires off an 'at' command as it starts. 'at' can be used to schedule one off jobs to occur later on. 'man at' should give you the info.

So the next bit would be to start your process (without waiting for it to stop), grab the id, then pass that into at. $! should hold that, and ampersand will make it not wait. $* to pass through the original parameters will help too.

Try something like:

#!/bin/bash
<your process> $* & export PID=$!
echo kill $PID | at now +1 hour