How to do ssh with a timeout in a script?

Question

I\'m executing a script connecting via password-less SSH on a remote host. I want to set a timeout, so that if the remote host is taking an infinite time to run, I want to c

Answer 1

If all else fails (including not having the timeout command) the concept in this shell script will work:

 #!/bin/bash
 set -u
 ssh $1 "sleep 10 ; uptime" > /tmp/outputfile 2>&1 & PIDssh=$!
 Count=0
 while test $Count -lt 5 && ps -p $PIDssh > /dev/null
 do
    echo -n .
    sleep 1
    Count=$((Count+1))
 done
 echo ""

 if ps -p $PIDssh > /dev/null
 then
    echo "ssh still running, killing it"
    kill -HUP $PIDssh
 else
    echo "Exited"
 fi