I notice that the GPS::NMEA module hasn't been updated since 2009. gpsd was updated in 2022, so there's a good chance that gpsd knows tricks to work around buggy hardware that GPS::NMEA doesn't know. GPS::NMEA seems to use SIGALRM for a timeout on reads, so it *ought* to wake up eventually.

If you'd like some sample code for accessing gpsd, here are some excerpts from mine. (this is designed to be run from a graphics loop where ->update is called repeatedly every few milliseconds and needs to never hang)

Disclaimer: there are simpler/cleaner ways to write this code, especially if you use Mojo::IOLoop, IO::Async, or AnyEvent. This is just what I have, from 2014, in a very "get it done" sort of C-programmer mentality.

use Moo;
...
my $json= JSON->new->utf8->allow_nonref;

has source               => is => 'ro', required => 1, default => sub 
+{ 'tcp:127.0.0.1:2947' };
sub has_daemon           { return defined shift->_socket }
sub has_device           { return scalar @{ (shift->_devices_packet //
+ {})->{devices} // [] } }
sub has_fix              { return defined shift->longitude }

has connect_retry_delay  => is => 'rw', default => sub { 3 };

has read_fail_count      => is => 'rwp', default => sub { 0 };
has last_connect_ts      => is => 'rwp', default => sub { 0 };
has last_packet_ts       => is => 'rwp', default => sub { 0 };
has last_location_ts     => is => 'rwp', default => sub { 0 };

has _source_packed_addr  => is => 'lazy';
has _socket              => is => 'rw';
has _socket_rbuf         => is => 'rw', default => sub { '' };

has _version_packet      => is => 'rw';
has _devices_packet      => is => 'rw';
has _sky_packet          => is => 'rw';
has _tpv_packet          => is => 'rw';

...

sub devices              { return (shift->_devices_packet // {})->{dev
+ices} }
sub gps_time_str         { return (shift->_tpv_packet // {})->{time} }
sub gps_ts               {
    my $self= shift;
    return undef unless $self->gps_time_str;
    my $d= $self->gps_time_str;
    $d =~ s/\.\d\d\dZ$//;
    return Time::Piece->strptime($d, '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S')->epoch;
}
sub latitude             { return (shift->_tpv_packet // {})->{lat} }
sub longitude            { return (shift->_tpv_packet // {})->{lon} }
sub satellites           { return (shift->_sky_packet // {})->{satelli
+tes} }
sub lat_km_per_degree    { return (shift->_tpv_avg // {})->{lat_deg_km
+} }
sub lon_km_per_degree    { return (shift->_tpv_avg // {})->{lon_deg_km
+} }

...

sub _build__source_packed_addr {
    my $self= shift;
    my $spec= $self->source;
    if ($spec =~ /^tcp:(.*):(\d+)/) {
        my ($addr, $port)= ($1, $2);
        my $packed_addr= inet_aton($addr) // croak "Can't resolve $add
+r";
        return sockaddr_in($port, $packed_addr);
    }
    elsif ($spec =~ /^unix:(.*)/) {
        return sockaddr_un($1);
    }
    else {
        croak "Unknown address type '$spec'";
    }
}

sub _connect {
    my $self= shift;
    $self->_set_last_connect_ts(time_mon);
    socket(my $sock, AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)
        or croak "socket: $!";
    connect($sock, $self->_source_packed_addr)
        or croak "connect: $!";
    $sock->blocking(0);
    $sock->autoflush(1);
    $self->_socket_rbuf('');
    $self->_socket($sock);
}

sub try_connect {
    my $self= shift;
    if ($self->has_daemon) {
        $self->_reset;
    }
    $log->info("connecting to ", $self->source);
    try {
        $self->_connect;
        $self->send('?WATCH={"enable":true,"json":true};');
        $log->info("connection succeeded");
        1;
    }
    catch {
        chomp( my $err= $_ );
        $log->error("connection failed: $err");
        0;
    };
}

sub update {
    my $self= shift;
    local $SIG{PIPE}= 'IGNORE';
    if (!defined $self->_socket) {
        return 0 if defined $self->last_connect_ts
            and time_mon - $self->last_connect_ts < $self->connect_ret
+ry_delay;
        return 0 unless $self->try_connect;
    }
    # Max 5 messages per loop
    my $i= 0;
    while (++$i <= 5) {
        my $msg= $self->_next_line;
        if (defined $msg) {
            chomp $msg;
            try {
                my $data= $json->decode($msg);
                $self->_set_last_packet_ts(time_mon);
                $self->process_message($data);
            } catch {
                $log->error("failed to process message \"$msg\": $_");
            };
        }
        elsif (!$self->_socket) {
            return;
        } else {
            last;
        }
    }
    
    # If it's been too long since the last location, reset it to undef
    $self->_tpv_packet(undef)
        if time_mon - $self->last_location_ts > 15;
    
    # Clear the other two if its been a while since we got anything
    if (time_mon - $self->last_packet_ts > 20) {
        if ($self->_devices_packet) {
            # re-request the device list, but only the first time we c
+lear it
            $self->send('?DEVICE;')
                if $self->_socket;
            $self->_devices_packet(undef);
        }
        $self->_sky_packet(undef);
    }
    
    # If we have TPV, and it's different from the last one, then add i
+t to the
    # smoothed coordinates.
    my $tpv= $self->_tpv_packet;
    my $avg= $self->_tpv_avg;
    my $t= $self->last_location_ts;
    if ($tpv && $t > $avg->{ts}) {
        my $dT= $t - $avg->{ts};
        $self->_lat_curve->add_point($t, $tpv->{lat});
        $self->_lon_curve->add_point($t, $tpv->{lon});
        push @{ $avg->{hist} }, [ $t, $tpv->{lat}, $tpv->{lon} ];
        shift @{ $avg->{hist} } if @{ $avg->{hist} } > 6;
        
        $avg->{lat}= $self->_lat_curve->evaluate($t);
        $log->debugf("(x(%.5f) - %.5f) * %.5f + %.5f = %.5f", $t,
            $self->_lat_curve->hist->[0][0],
            $self->_lat_curve->_avg_line->[1],
            $self->_lat_curve->_avg_line->[0],
            $avg->{lat});
        $avg->{lon}= $self->_lon_curve->evaluate($t);
        $avg->{lat_velocity}= $avg->{lat} - $self->_lat_curve->evaluat
+e($t-1);
        $avg->{lon_velocity}= $avg->{lon} - $self->_lon_curve->evaluat
+e($t-1);
        $avg->{lat_deg_km}= deg2rad(1) * 6371.64;
        $avg->{lon_deg_km}= haversine_distance($avg->{lat},$avg->{lon}
+, $avg->{lat},($avg->{lon}+1)) * 6371.64;
        $avg->{ts}= $t;
    }
}

sub send {
    my ($self, $msg)= @_;
    $self->_socket->print("$msg\n");
}

sub _next_line {
    my $self= shift;
    my $msg= $self->_socket->getline;
    if (defined $msg) {
        $self->_set_read_fail_count(0);
        if ($msg =~ /\n$/) {
            $msg= $self->_socket_rbuf . $msg;
            $self->_socket_rbuf('');
            return $msg;
        }
        # else
        $self->{_socket_rbuf} .= $msg;
    }
    elsif ($!{EWOULDBLOCK} || $!{EAGAIN}) {
    }
    elsif ($self->_socket->eof) {
        $log->info("connection closed");
        $self->_reset;
    }
    else {    
        $log->info("unexpected error from recv: $!");
        if (++$self->{read_fail_count} > 3) {
            $log->info("too many read failures (".$self->read_fail_cou
+nt."), will reconnect");
            $self->_reset;
        }
    }
    return undef;
}

sub _reset {
    my $self= shift;
    $self->_socket_rbuf('');
    $self->_socket->close if $self->_socket;
    $self->_socket(undef);
    $self->_set_read_fail_count(0);
    $self->_set_last_connect_ts(undef);
    
    # Reset data fields
    $self->_version_packet(undef);
    $self->_devices_packet(undef);
    $self->_sky_packet(undef);
    $self->_tpv_packet(undef);
}

sub process_message {
    my ($self, $msg)= @_;
    my $class= delete $msg->{class};
    defined $class or die "Mesage missing 'class'";
    if ($class eq 'DEVICES') {
        $self->_devices_packet($msg);
    }
    elsif ($class eq 'DEVICE') {
        $self->_devices_packet({ devices => [ $msg ]});
    }
    elsif ($class eq 'VERSION') {
        $self->_version_packet($msg);
    }
    elsif ($class eq 'SKY') {
        $self->_sky_packet($msg);
    }
    elsif ($class eq 'TPV') {
        $self->_tpv_packet($msg);
        $self->_set_last_location_ts(time_mon);
    }
}

1;
[download]

Thank you for the reply! I was wondering about gpsd at the time of my question and appreciate your good advice. Here's what I've got from a very lazy sort of Perl-programmer mentality :^)

perl -MJSON::XS -le '$_=`gpspipe -n 5 -w|grep TPV`;$_=decode_json$_;pr
+int"$_->{lon} $_->{lat} $_->{alt} $_->{time}"'
[download]

Result: -123.456789012 12.345678901 123.1234 2024-05-03T12:34:56.000Z

My application requires the automated determination of timezone from GPS:

perl -MJSON::XS -e '$_=`gpspipe -n 5 -w|grep TPV`;$_=decode_json$_;pri
+nt`timezonefinder $_->{lon} $_->{lat}`'
[download]

Result: Your/Timezone

---

sudo apt install libopenblas-dev
pip3 install timezonefinder
export PATH=/home/user/.local/bin:$PATH
[download]

---

Wait for GPS:

perl -MJSON::XS -e 'RE:while(){$_=`gpspipe -n 5 -w|grep TPV`;last if$_
+;sleep 1}eval{$_=decode_json$_};if($@){sleep 1;goto RE};print`timezon
+efinder $_->{lon} $_->{lat}`'
[download]

Now my computer magically knows the time zone:

sudo ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Your/Timezone /etc/localtime

That'll do the trick :-) but there isn't much in the way of detection and remediation in that code, which is what I thought you were aiming for. If you want a rock-solid solution you should probably use a non-blocking socket/pipe and then restarts gpsd if it goes too long without reporting anything. Maybe also add a software-controlled electrical disconnect on the USB port so that you can power-cycle the device :-)

Would it be wise to fork the program and somehow monitor it for activity from the parent so a hanging child process could be restarted or something?

You could certainly do that and there are many ways to go about it. But that might not be necessary if a simple alarm would suffice. Have you tried that? Unfortunately without the requisite USB dongle I'm not in a position to test this.