How can I kill a Perl system call after a timeout?

Posted by Fergal on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Fergal
Published on 2010-04-21T00:23:18Z Indexed on 2010/04/21 12:53 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 232

Filed under:

perl

|

multithreading

I've got a Perl script I'm using for running a file processing tool which is started using backticks. The problem is that occasionally the tool hangs and It needs to be killed in order for the rest of the files to be processed.

Whats the best way best way to apply a timeout after which the parent script will kill the hung process?

At the moment I'm using:

foreach $file (@FILES) {
    $runResult = `mytool $file >> $file.log`;
}

But when mytool hangs after n seconds I'd like to be able to kill it and continue to the next file.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about perl

Munin on Centos 6 - missing perl MODULE_COMPAT_5.8.8

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm trying to install Munin on a new VPS through yum install munin but I keep getting an error about a missing perl module: Requires: perl(:MODULE_COMPAT_5.8.8). This is the perl version currently installed: v5.10.1. I've searched all around and still haven't found a solution for this. Here's the… >>> More
Pain removing a perl rootkit

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
So, we host a geoservice webserver thing at the office. Someone apparently broke into this box (probably via ftp or ssh), and put some kind of irc-managed rootkit thing. Now I'm trying to clean the whole thing up, I found the process pid who tries to connect via irc, but i can't figure out who's… >>> More
How To Avoid a Perl script calling an Another Perl Script

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, i am calling a perl script client.pl from a main script to capture the output of client.pl in @output. is there anyway to avoid the use of these two files so i can use the output of client.pl in main.pl itself here is my code.... main.pl ======= my @output = readpipe("client.pl"); client… >>> More
Perl :how to sort dates in perl

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, How can I sort the dates in perl. my @dates = ( "02/11/2009" , "12/20/2001" , "11/21/2010" ) ; I have above dates in my array . How can I sort those dates... ? My date format is dd/mm/YYYY. >>> More
please suggest a perl book exclusively for perl programs

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I want tha name of a perl book for only PERL PROGRAMS. The reason behind is I want to improve my programming skill in perl >>> More

Related posts about multithreading

C++ Multithreading on Unix

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I have two related questions: 1) Are there any good books for multithreading in C++, especially now that C++11 contains multithreading in the standard library? 2) I have the Wrox Programming on Unix book (1000 pages fat red one) and within it, it uses the Unix Thread class. How does this code relate… >>> More
what are the difficulties of operating system multithreading?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am reading a book that compares two ways of implementing threads, Middleware Threads and OS Threads. I have a question about these sentences: "A difficulty of operating system multithreading, however, is performance overhead. Since it is the operating system that is involved in switching threads… >>> More
TCP multicast and multithreading

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I need to come up with clients that can multicast to other clients reliably. That implies I'll be using TCP to connect reliably between clients within a multicast group. Doesn't that come up to n^2 number of connections? That seems a little silly to me. Wouldn't/shouldn't there be a way to more easily… >>> More
Multithreading recommendation based on program description

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I would like to describe some specifics of my program and get feedback on what the best multithreading model to use would be most applicable. I've spent a lot of time now reading on ThreadPool, Threads, Producer/Consumer, etc. and have yet to come to solid conclusions. I have a list of files (all… >>> More
How to achieve multithreading using JavaScript with IE6?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
How to achieve multithreading using JavaScript with IE6? Is there a third party library to do this? >>> More