How can you set a time limit for a PowerShell script to run for?

Question

I want to set a time limit on a PowerShell (v2) script so it forcibly exits after that time limit has expired.

I see in PHP they have commands like set_time_limit an

Answer 1

I came up with this script.

• Start-Transcript to log all actions and save them to a file.
• Store the current process ID value in the variable $p then write it to screen.
• Assign the current date to the $startTime variable.
• Afterwards I assign it again and add the extra time to the current date to the var $expiration.
• The updateTime function return what time there is left before the application closes. And writes it to console.
• Start looping and kill process if the timer exceeds the expiration time.
• That's it.

Code:

Start-Transcript C:\Transcriptlog-Cleanup.txt #write log to this location
$p = Get-Process  -Id $pid | select -Expand id  # -Expand selcts the string from the object id out of the current proces.
Write-Host $p

$startTime = (Get-Date) # set start time
$startTime
$expiration = (Get-Date).AddSeconds(20) #program expires at this time
# you could change the expiration time by changing (Get-Date).AddSeconds(20) to (Get-Date).AddMinutes(10)or to hours whatever you like

#-----------------
#Timer update function setup
function UpdateTime
   {
    $LeftMinutes =   ($expiration) - (Get-Date) | Select -Expand minutes  # sets minutes left to left time
    $LeftSeconds =   ($expiration) - (Get-Date) | Select -Expand seconds  # sets seconds left to left time


    #Write time to console
    Write-Host "------------------------------------------------------------------" 
    Write-Host "Timer started at     :  "  $startTime
    Write-Host "Current time         :  "  (Get-Date)
    Write-Host "Timer ends at        :  "  $expiration
    Write-Host "Time on expire timer : "$LeftMinutes "Minutes" $LeftSeconds "Seconds"
    Write-Host "------------------------------------------------------------------" 
    }
#-----------------


do{   #start loop
    Write-Host "Working"#start doing other script stuff
    Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 5000  #add delay to reduce spam and processing power
    UpdateTime #call upadate function to print time
 }
until ($p.HasExited -or (Get-Date) -gt $expiration) #check exit time

Write-Host "done"
Stop-Transcript
if (-not $p.HasExited) { Stop-Process -ID $p -PassThru } # kill process after time expires