Dead Man Timer?

[Neil Everhart]

Need to detect a stalled process.

I am using python to telnet to a terminal server.  The ports of the terminal
server are connected to console ports.   My code works great as long as the
cable from the terminal server port to the console port is in place and the
console is alive.

If the cable is disconnected or the console is down (real world)... opening
a session to the terminal server and port does not raise a error.   If I
proceed with a write to the port, the script stalls (forever) until I
intervene.

Is there a 'dead man timer' library function that would timeout and let me
raise an exception?

Your response will be appreciated... a newbe to python.
neil


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