Use perldoc IO::Socket:

       timeout([VAL])
           Set or get the timeout value associated with this
           socket. If called without any arguments then the cur-
           rent setting is returned. If called with an argument
           the current setting is changed and the previous value
           returned.
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Ciao!
--bronto

The very nature of Perl to be like natural language--inconsistant and full of dwim and special cases--makes it impossible to know it all without simply memorizing the documentation (which is not complete or totally correct anyway).
--John M. Dlugosz