Re^3: Timer Question

Depends on what is meant by "system call".

If it's system call, it's a call to the OS, like sysread, in which case alarm works exactly as required.

If it's "system() call", then things are different: system() forks a process, executes whatever's specified (different for single/multiple arguments), waits until the command is completed and then returns. It won't kill the spawned process, that's why it will run until the end.

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Re^4: Timer Question by ikegami (Patriarch) on Feb 17, 2006 at 02:58 UTC
oh, yes, it does look like I misread the OP.	[reply]
Re^4: Timer Question by rudeb0y (Novice) on Feb 17, 2006 at 18:26 UTC
it is a "system() call", how can I kill this after a certain amount of time...will alarm work per the other responses... Your help is greatly appreciated.	[reply]
Re^5: Timer Question by salva (Canon) on Feb 17, 2006 at 18:42 UTC
On some systems, you can set an alarm on a child process like that: `# instead of system("/foo/bar") do... my $pid = fork; if (defined $fork and not $fork) { alarm $timeout; exec "/foo/bar"; exit(1); # just in case exec fails. }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]