python - How to limit execution time of a function call?

Question

There is a socket related function call in my code, that function is from another module thus out of my control, the problem is that it blocks for hours occasionally, which is totally unacceptable, How can I limit the function execution time from my code? I guess the solution must utilize another thread.

Answer 1

An improvement on @rik.the.vik's answer would be to use the with statement to give the timeout function some syntactic sugar:

import signal
from contextlib import contextmanager

class TimeoutException(Exception): pass

@contextmanager
def time_limit(seconds):
    def signal_handler(signum, frame):
        raise TimeoutException("Timed out!")
    signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, signal_handler)
    signal.alarm(seconds)
    try:
        yield
    finally:
        signal.alarm(0)


try:
    with time_limit(10):
        long_function_call()
except TimeoutException as e:
    print("Timed out!")