Try this (compile with "gcc `pkg-config --libs --cflags gtk+-2.0` main.c"):
--- main.c ---
#include <gtk/gtk.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
GtkWidget *win;
gtk_init(&argc, &argv);
win = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
gtk_widget_show(win);
g_signal_connect(win, "destroy", gtk_main_quit, NULL);
g_timeout_add(10000, gtk_widget_destroy, win);
gtk_main();
};
--- main.c ---
here we connect gtk_main_quit on "destroy" signal of window widget and
add a timeout to destroy the window widget after 10000 millisecs.