sub get_stdin_w_timeout {
  ######!/usr/bin/perl
  #got from zentara on perl monks in response to Timeout on STDIN
  #modifying to use ReadKey to get first key and then <STDIN> to get the rest of the line
  #this function assumes that once there is some input on stdin,
  #the rest of the line is available too
  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use Term::ReadKey;
  my $timeout_in_sec=shift;
  my $end_time = time + $timeout_in_sec;
  my $key="";
  do {
    my $key = ReadKey(1);
    if (defined $key) {
      #not sure if I need to concatenate $key on the front of <STDIN>
      return $key. <STDIN>;
    }
    
  } while (time < $end_time );
  return "!ERROR!:Timed out waiting on input after ${timeout_in_sec}s\n";

}


##</code><code>##

    $plibMsg=&get_stdin_w_timeout(5);#<STDIN>;