Question

how would I stop a while loop after 5 minutes if it does not achieve what I want it to achieve.

while true:
    test = 0
    if test == 5:
        break
    test = test - 1

This code throws me in an endless loop.

Answer 1

Try the following:

import time
timeout = time.time() + 60*5   # 5 minutes from now
while True:
    test = 0
    if test == 5 or time.time() > timeout:
        break
    test = test - 1

You may also want to add a short sleep here so this loop is not hogging CPU (for example time.sleep(1) at the beginning or end of the loop body).