How to add a timeout to a function in Python

Question

Many attempts have been made in the past to add timeout functionality in Python such that when a specified time limit expired, waiting code could move on. Unfortunately, pre

Answer 1

The Pebble library was designed to offer cross-platform implementation capable of dealing with problematic logic which could crash, segfault or run indefinitely.

from pebble import concurrent

@concurrent.process(timeout=10)
def function(foo, bar=0):
    return foo + bar

future = function(1, bar=2)

try:
    result = future.result()  # blocks until results are ready
except Exception as error:
    print("Function raised %s" % error)
    print(error.traceback)  # traceback of the function
except TimeoutError as error:
    print("Function took longer than %d seconds" % error.args[1])

The decorator works as well with static and class methods. I would not recommend to decorate methods nevertheless, as it is a quite error prone practice.