Another alternative that is commonly used is a select() for example:

    my $timeout = 30;
    my $fdset = "";
    vec($fdset, $connect->fileno, 1) = 1;

    while (1) 
      {
        my $buffer;

        my $n = select($fdset,undef,undef,$timeout);
        if($n < 0)
          {
            carp("Select failed $n\n");
            return undef;
          }
        elsif($n == 0)
          {
            carp("Timout expired\n");
            return undef;
          }
        my $count = sysread($connect,$buffer,$buffer_size,0);
        # Should check the sysread's return value

        # Do we have a complete request?
        $data .= $buffer;
        last if(request_complete(\$data));
      }
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