use strict;
use warnings;
use Spreadsheet::ParseExcel;

my $file = shift;
my $excel;
eval {
 local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "timeout\n" };
 alarm(5);
 $excel = Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Workbook->Parse($file);
 die "Can't parse $file\n" unless defined $excel;
 alarm(0);
};

die $@ if $@;

# contiune with $excel object