I know that they do not work on win32, and why.

My question was: can signals -- alarm generated or otherwise -- interrupt blocking IO on *nix in under the auspices of safe-signals?

This works on *nix:

use strict   ;
use warnings ;

my $timeout_in = 5 ;

eval {
    local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "timed_out\n" };
    alarm($timeout_in);
    while(<>) { 
    alarm($timeout_in);
    my $in = $_ ;
    chomp( $in ) ;
    print $in . "\n" ;
    last if( $in eq 'exit' );
    }
    alarm(0) ;
};
if ($@) {
    die( "Hey ... whats with the slow typing ??\n" );
}
[download]

Really? Actual tested code on which flavour of *nix & Perl please?

Because that seems to contradict anonymonk's reading of the docs?

---

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

perlipc Deferred Signals (Safe Signals) Interrupting IO says it could happen, but it probably won't, you should use unsafe signals via POSIX::SigAction or Perl::Unsafe::Signals

you should use

That'll be tobyink and/or the OP that need to do that. Or maybe not? (Damn! It is hard to get a straight answer around here :()

---

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.