#! perl -slw
use strict;
use IPC::Open3;
$|++;

sub timeout {
    my ($timeout, $output_ref, @cmd ) = @_;

    print "@cmd";

	my ($wtr, $rdr);
	my $pid = open3( $wtr, $rdr, $rdr, @cmd );
	print $pid;
	my $start = time();

	while( <$rdr> ) {
		push @$output_ref, $_;
		if (($start+$timeout) < time() ) {
			kill( 9, $pid) or warn $!;
			return 0; # Timeout. @$output_ref may contain some output.
		}
	}
	return -1; # Successful completion.
}

my @output;
if ( timeout(10, \@output, 'ping', '-t', 'bbc.co.uk') ) {
    print @output;
}
else {
    print "timed out...\n@output";
}