It dosn't get much simpler than this. Instead of the SIG(INT), you could just directly call exit, for a quicker kill. 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use threads;
use threads::shared;

my $timer_go:shared = 0;

my $worker = threads->create(\&worker);
my $timer = threads->create(\&timer,$worker);

print "hit enter to start\n";
<>;
$timer_go=1;
<>;

$timer->join();
$worker->join();


sub timer {
  my $worker = shift;
   while(1){     
       if($timer_go){
        my $count = 0;
             while(1){ 
                  $count++;
                  if($count > 5){    
                         print "timed out\nHit enter to finish\n";
                          # Send a signal to a thread
                         $worker->kill('INT');
                         return;
                        } 
                  sleep 1;
                  print "timing $count\n";
            }
       }else{sleep 1}
    }
}

sub worker {
       $|++;
       $SIG{INT} = sub{ warn "Caught Zap!\n"; sleep 1; exit; };
       
       # do your timed program here.
       my $worker_pid = open( READ, "top -d 1 -b |" );
       
       print "\t$worker_pid\n";
       while(<READ>){  }
       return;
}

[download]
I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth.
Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh

In reply to Re^3: Setting a timer to a system call by zentara
in thread Setting a timer to a system call by Freezer

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.