def TIMEOUT_COMMAND(command, timeout):
"""call shell-command and either return its output or kill it
if it doesn't normally exit within timeout seconds and return None"""
import subprocess, datetime, os, time, signal,sys
cmd = command.split(" ")
start = datetime.datetime.now()
process = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE,shell=True)
while process.poll() is None:
time.sleep(1)
now = datetime.datetime.now()
if (now - start).seconds> timeout: subprocess.Popen("cmd /c taskkill /f /im notepad.exe") return False
return True print TIMEOUT_COMMAND("notepad.exe",5)