Example of running a command with time limit but not affecting the errexit option in bash.

run_with_timeout.sh

#!/bin/bash

TIMEOUT=timeout

run_with_timeout() {
    oldopt=$-
    set +e
    $TIMEOUT $@
    ret=$?
    if [[ $ret -eq 124 ]]; then
        ret=0
    fi
    set -$oldopt
    return $ret
}

set -e

run_with_timeout 1s true
echo "Success within time limit: rc=$?"

run_with_timeout 1s sleep 10
echo "Timeout: rc=$?"

run_with_timeout 1s false
echo "*THIS SHOULD NOT BE PRINTED* Failure within time limit: rc=$?"