stopping functions with long execution times

Dear all,

I am running the same model on several datasets, each dataset is a different species. The problem is that for some datasets the model is not converging. Currently I have an INLA model running for 35 days and still no results. The process still uses near 100% of the CPU and less than 1 GB RAM on virtual Ubuntu box with 8 GB RAM on a blade server.

I can kill the process manual and make the script skip this model. However it would be more elegant if it was possible to automate this. E.g. let the model run but kill it automatically once it runs for more than 7 days. Once killed the model should throw an error so we can catch that in the error-handling.

Any suggestions on how to do this?

Best regards,

Thierry

ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Instituut voor natuur- en bosonderzoek / Research Institute for Nature and Forest
team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
Kliniekstraat 25
1070 Anderlecht
Belgium
+ 32 2 525 02 51
+ 32 54 43 61 85
Thierry.Onkelinx at inbo.be
www.inbo.be

To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to say what the experiment died of.
~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher

The plural of anecdote is not data.
~ Roger Brinner

The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.
~ John Tukey

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