max time wait for a function

[Albert Hopkins]

On Tue, 2010-05-18 at 02:45 -0700, pacopyc wrote:
> Hi, I've a question for you. I'd like to call a function and waiting
> its return value for a time max (30 sec).
> The function could not respond and then I must avoid to wait for
> infinite time. OS is Windows XP.
> Can you help me?
> 
> Thank

This is how I do it with a function decorator. I probably borrowed this
from someone and not attributed it.  Anyway, it works on Linux, not sure
about Windows:

def function_timeout(seconds):
    """Function decorator to raise a timeout on a function call"""
    import signal
    class FunctionTimeOut(Exception):
        pass

    def decorate(f):
        def timeout(signum, frame):
            raise FunctionTimeOut()

        def funct(*args, **kwargs):
            old = signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout)
            signal.alarm(seconds)

            try:
                result = f(*args, **kwargs)
            finally:
                signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, old)
            signal.alarm(0)
            return result

        return funct

    return decorate