the LWP stuff will be [interuptable]

You sure?

When I run the following two one liners, 'here' is printed after 30 seconds--when the server times out--not after 10 as it would be if the alarm had interupted the socket read.

C:\test>start /b perl -MIO::Socket 
-E"$s=IO::Socket::INET->new(Listen=>1,LocalPort=>12345);$c=$s->accept;
+sleep 30"

C:\test>perl -MIO::Socket 
-E"$s=IO::Socket::INET->new('localhost:12345');eval{alarm 10;<$s>};pri
+nt'here'"
here
[download]

C:\test>start /b perl -MIO::Socket 
-E"$s=IO::Socket::INET->new(Listen=>1,LocalPort=>12345);$c=$s->accept;
+sleep 30"

C:\test>perl -MIO::Socket 
-E"$s=IO::Socket::INET->new('localhost:12345');eval{alarm 10;<$s>};pri
+nt'here'"
here
[download]

Windows has no signals. Not even SIGALRM. Perl emulates them, and the emulation is far from perfection. (It's actually pretty good, given that ugly Windows API.)

Alexander

--
Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)

You're telling me non-useful information I already know. alarm does interupt non-io operations on windows:

C:\test>perl -E"$c=0;eval{ alarm 10; ++$c while 1; alarm 0;}"
Terminating on signal SIGALRM(14)
[download]

---

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"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.