gnutv -channels channels.conf -timeout 3 -out file xx.mpg  9.1

This command should record from the default device for 3 seconds.
Instead it runs indefinitely until killed.

Investigating further, this bug relates to whether or not you get a
signal lock while recording.

In  gnutv.c  around line 339, a start timer is not initialized until a
signal lock is acquired.  In receiving over-the-air broadcasts in my
area, gnutv must not be getting a strong enough signal to acquire a
lock.  It does get sufficient signal to start receiving data though, and
in this case, the recording never terminate.  This causes a real problem
for automated scripts which run forever and result in infinite length
recordings.  At 1080i, HDTV rapidly consumes the entire hard drive.

I think the start timer should be initialized right away regardless of
the lock state so the timeout parameter can be effective.  In general
you would expect a lock to be acquired within a few seconds so delaying
the start timer is not really beneficial.

An alternative might be to implement a second timeout which cancels the
recording if no lock is acquired within a specified period.

Cheers,
Chris.