Timeout on subprocess readline in Python

Question

I have a small issue that I\'m not quite sure how to solve. Here is a minimal example:

What I have

scan_process = subprocess.Popen(command, stdout=su         


        

Answer 1

Try using signal.alarm:

#timeout.py
import signal, sys

def timeout(sig, frm):
  print "This is taking too long..."
  sys.exit(1)

signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout)
signal.alarm(10)
byte = 0

while 'IT' not in open('/dev/urandom').read(2):
  byte += 2
print "I got IT in %s byte(s)!" % byte

A couple of runs to show it works:

$ python timeout.py 
This is taking too long...
$ python timeout.py 
I got IT in 4672 byte(s)!

For a more detailed example, see pGuides.