my $timeout = 3
 my $timedout = 0;
 my $oops = 0;
 my $error;
 my $stime;
 my $etime;
 eval  {
         local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "timeout\n" }; # die out of eval statement not entire program
         alarm $timeout;
         $stime = time; # make a note of the time now
     $result = $ua->request($req); # make request of website
     $etime = time; # make a note of the time now
         alarm 0;
        };
  if ($@)
  {
  if ($@ eq "timeout\n") { $timedout = 1; }
   if ($@ and $@ ne "timeout\n") { $oops = 1; } # if there was an error in the eval and it wasn't the alarm
 }
 
 $error = $timedout || $oops;
 my $dtime = $etime - $stime; # figure out the time taken for the request
 
 if (!$error)
 {
  open(TEST,">/var/tmp/t4.txt");
  print TEST "http result\n";
# here I get told that the request took 10 seconds and my time out is 3 seconds
  print TEST $result->status_line." : $dtime secs taken, timeout = $timeout\n";
 
  # print TEST "ok\n";
  close(TEST);
 }
 else
 {
  open(TEST,">/var/tmp/t4.txt");
  if ($oops) 
    { print TEST "oops error occurred: $@\n"; }
  else
    { print TEST "timeout\n";} 
  close(TEST);   
 }