How about the alarm solution, without the forking? 
$SIG{ALRM} = sub {
    die "Timed out"; # Or whatever
}
foreach $task (@tasks) {
    alarm 30;
    $task->do_one_task();
};
alarm 0;
$SIG{ALRM} = 'DEFAULT';

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In reply to Re: Splitting one large timeout into few smaller ones.. by Roy Johnson
in thread Splitting one large timeout into few smaller ones.. by Eyck

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