New util suggestion: timeout

[Philip Rowlands]

What:
timeout, executes the sub-command a-la GNU time/nice, but takes
arguments to control the amount of wallclock time the process is
allowed.

Why:
- ulimit for real time
- No current util (GNU or otherwise) widely distributed (AFAIK)
- Useful in scripting, particularly with network apps

I was surprised to find lacking, when writing a shell script, that no
simple app exists for constraining how long apps will run, so this is a
proposal to write one for coreutils, although I'd be happy to learn if
there's something else already in common use.

Feedback is appreciated; I'll come up with some example invocations and
use cases if there's enough interest.


Cheers,
Phil