您可以使用select来完成此操作

import subprocess
from datetime import datetime
from select import select

def call_with_timeout(cmd, timeout):
    started = datetime.now()
    sp = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    while True:
        p = select([sp.stdout], [], [], timeout)
        if p[0]:
            p[0][0].read()
        ret = sp.poll()
        if ret is not None:
            return ret
        if (datetime.now()-started).total_seconds() > timeout:
            sp.kill()
            return None

对于python 2.6+，使用gevent

 from gevent.subprocess import Popen, PIPE, STDOUT

 def call_sys(cmd, timeout):
      p= Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdout=PIPE)
      output, _ = p.communicate(timeout=timeout)
      assert p.returncode == 0, p. returncode
      return output

 call_sys('./t.sh', 2)

 # t.sh example
 sleep 5
 echo done
 exit 1

我已经实现了我能从其中一些收集到的东西。这适用于Windows，因为这是一个社区维基，我想我也会分享我的代码:

class Command(threading.Thread):
    def __init__(self, cmd, outFile, errFile, timeout):
        threading.Thread.__init__(self)
        self.cmd = cmd
        self.process = None
        self.outFile = outFile
        self.errFile = errFile
        self.timed_out = False
        self.timeout = timeout

    def run(self):
        self.process = subprocess.Popen(self.cmd, stdout = self.outFile, \
            stderr = self.errFile)

        while (self.process.poll() is None and self.timeout > 0):
            time.sleep(1)
            self.timeout -= 1

        if not self.timeout > 0:
            self.process.terminate()
            self.timed_out = True
        else:
            self.timed_out = False

然后从另一个类或文件:

        outFile =  tempfile.SpooledTemporaryFile()
        errFile =   tempfile.SpooledTemporaryFile()

        executor = command.Command(c, outFile, errFile, timeout)
        executor.daemon = True
        executor.start()

        executor.join()
        if executor.timed_out:
            out = 'timed out'
        else:
            outFile.seek(0)
            errFile.seek(0)
            out = outFile.read()
            err = errFile.read()

        outFile.close()
        errFile.close()

有一个想法是子类化Popen类并用一些简单的方法装饰器来扩展它。我们叫它ExpirablePopen吧。

from logging import error
from subprocess import Popen
from threading import Event
from threading import Thread


class ExpirablePopen(Popen):

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        self.timeout = kwargs.pop('timeout', 0)
        self.timer = None
        self.done = Event()

        Popen.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)

    def __tkill(self):
        timeout = self.timeout
        if not self.done.wait(timeout):
            error('Terminating process {} by timeout of {} secs.'.format(self.pid, timeout))
            self.kill()

    def expirable(func):
        def wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs):
            # zero timeout means call of parent method
            if self.timeout == 0:
                return func(self, *args, **kwargs)

            # if timer is None, need to start it
            if self.timer is None:
                self.timer = thr = Thread(target=self.__tkill)
                thr.daemon = True
                thr.start()

            result = func(self, *args, **kwargs)
            self.done.set()

            return result
        return wrapper

    wait = expirable(Popen.wait)
    communicate = expirable(Popen.communicate)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    from subprocess import PIPE

    print ExpirablePopen('ssh -T git@bitbucket.org', stdout=PIPE, timeout=1).communicate()

没想到居然没人提到超时

Timeout 5 ping -c 3 somehost

显然，这并不适用于每个用例，但如果您处理的是一个简单的脚本，那么这是很难克服的。

mac用户也可以通过homebrew在coreutils中使用gtimeout。

只是想写些简单点的东西。

#!/usr/bin/python

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE
import datetime
import time 

popen = Popen(["/bin/sleep", "10"]);
pid = popen.pid
sttime = time.time();
waittime =  3

print "Start time %s"%(sttime)

while True:
    popen.poll();
    time.sleep(1)
    rcode = popen.returncode
    now = time.time();
    if [ rcode is None ]  and  [ now > (sttime + waittime) ] :
        print "Killing it now"
        popen.kill()