Ellipsis

# Inspired by:
# http://www.ultranetsolutions.com/BASH-terminate-command-after-timeout.html
cmd_timeout() {
   [ $# -eq 2 ] || die "cmd_timeout takes 2 arguments" 
   command=$1
   sleep_time=$2

   # run $command in background, sleep for our timeout then kill the process if it is running
   # $! has the pid of the backgrounded job
   $command &
   cmd_pid=$!

   # sleep for our timeout then kill the process if it is running
   ( sleep $sleep_time && kill $cmd_pid && echo "ERROR - killed $command due to timeout $sleep_time exceeded" ) &
   killer_pid=$!

   # 'wait' for cmd_pid to complete normally.  If it does before the timeout is reached, then
   # the status will be zero.  If the killer_pid terminates it, then it will have a non-zero 
   # exit status
   wait $cmd_pid &> /dev/null
   wait_status=$?

   if [ $wait_status -ne 0 ]; then 
      echo "WARNING - command, $command, unclean exit" 
   else
      # Normal exit, detach and clean up the useless killer_pid
      disown $killer_pid
      kill $killer_pid &> /dev/null
   fi

   return $wait_status
}

cmd_timeout "ssh myhost some_long-running_command" 
next_command