Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!DIALix!bernie
From: bernie@DIALix.oz.au (Bernd Felsche)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Implementing a Timeout During Shell Script Data Entry
Summary: Use kill and signals
Keywords: timeout, data entry, child process, simplest method
Message-ID: <592@DIALix.oz.au>
Date: 22 Oct 90 14:51:29 GMT
References: <4128@kitty.UUCP>nSender: Bernd Felsche
Reply-To: bernie@DIALix.oz.au (Bernd Felsche)
Organization: DIALix Services, Perth, Western Australia
Lines: 19

The following seems to work for me:

#!/bin/sh  (or korny, if you have it)

  delay=6
  trap 'trap 14' 14
  echo "What is your Quest? \c"
  (sleep $delay; kill -14 $$ 2>/dev/null)&
  read YourQuest
  kill $! 2>/dev/null
  [ ! -z "$YourQuest" ] && echo "Bah. Humbug. Not interested in $YourQuest" \
  			|| echo "You must be interested in something!"

Hope that does the trick.

-- 
 ________Bernd_Felsche__________bernie@DIALix.oz.au_____________
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