On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 12:45, Raymond Norton <admin at lctn.org> wrote:
> I am using cat to capture video from VHS tapes, saving the files as mpegs
>  and don't want to baby sit things. How can I launch cat with a
> predetermined ending time without having to use cron?

For a single-use situation, at would be more appropriate than cron.
You could also use sleep to run kill at the right time.

 - Tony