I'm having a problem timing out a particular function call. Calls to Text::Unaccent::unac_string(), which is an XS binding to libiconv, hang on certain strings containing Russian and Asian text.

I would really like to avoid hacking at that module, so is there another way to make this timeout?

If not, what are some things in this function that could be causing my ALRM to be ignored?

Here's the snippet of code: 
eval {
    local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "alarm timeout" };
    local $SIG{__DIE__} = sub { alarm 0; die @_ };
    alarm 2;
    print "calling";
    # This prints out calling, and hangs forever, never printing "done
+"
    $string = unac_string('UTF-8', $string);
    print "done";
    alarm 0;
};

[download]

Thanks

In reply to SIGALRM timeout problem by Anonymous Monk

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