use warnings; use strict; use Data::Dumper; my @file_list; eval { local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "alarm\n" }; alarm 5; chomp( @file_list = `sleep 10; ls /tmp` ); die "ls: \$?=$?" if $?; alarm 0; 1 } or do { die $@ unless $@ eq "alarm\n"; warn "Timed out"; }; print Dumper(\@file_list); #### use warnings; use strict; use Data::Dumper; use IPC::Run qw/ run timeout /; use Try::Tiny; my @file_list; try { run ['ls','/tmp'], \undef, \my $lines, timeout(5) or die "ls: \$?=$?"; @file_list = split /\n/, $lines; } catch { die $_ unless /^IPC::Run: timeout/; warn "Timed out"; }; print Dumper(\@file_list);