note afoken <blockquote>removed local and every thing worked perfectly</blockquote> <p>No, it doesn't. The <c>On</c> function sets the signal handler globally, for ever, even after <c>eval</c> has finished. You want <c>local $SIG{'ALRM'}</c> inside that <c>eval</c>.</p> <p>The extra subs don't make your code any clearer. I think you should keep [doc://alarm] and <c>local $SIG{'ALRM'}</c> inside the <c>eval</c>.</p> <p>You could also consider writing a generic timeout function like this:</p> <c> # untested sub withTimeout { my ($timeout,$worker,$timeouthandler)=@_; eval { local $SIG{'ALRM'}=sub { die "TIMEOUT" }; alarm($timeout); $worker->(); alarm(0); }; if ($@ and $@=~/TIMEOUT/) { $errorhandler->(); } } </c> <p>Alexander</p> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-747201"> --<br> Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-) </div></div> 1007553 1007559