To the best of my knowledge, the fault is not in my code. If you dig into Net::SSH::Perl's Config.pm, you can easily find the routine for parsing the -o style options. ConnectTimeout is not parsed at all, and if you dig a bit more, you'll see that the socket is not created with any sort of timeout other than the default.

My question is less about how to make Net::SSH::Perl work for me, and more about how to implement a socket timeout given the current form of Net::SSH::Perl's socket implementation. I'm curious if anyone else has ever had a need for it and attempted a modification or workaround to incorporate a timeout.

All of that said... if a code snippet is what you want, here ya go :) :

from Net::SSH::Perl::Config -

%DIRECTIVES = (
    BindAddress             => [ \&_set_str, 'bind_address' ],
    Host                    => [ \&_host ],
    BatchMode               => [ \&_batch_mode ],
    ChallengeResponseAuthentication => [ \&_set_yesno, 'auth_ch_res' ]
+,
    Cipher                  => [ \&_cipher ],
    Ciphers                 => [ \&_set_str, 'ciphers' ],
    Compression             => [ \&_set_yesno, 'compression' ],
    CompressionLevel        => [ \&_set_str, 'compression_level' ],
    DSAAuthentication       => [ \&_set_yesno, 'auth_dsa' ],
    GlobalKnownHostsFile    => [ \&_set_str, 'global_known_hosts' ],
    HostKeyAlgorithms       => [ \&_set_str, 'host_key_algorithms' ],
    HostName                => [ \&_set_str, 'hostname' ],
    IdentityFile            => [ \&_identity_file ],
    NumberOfPasswordPrompts => [ \&_set_str, 'number_of_password_promp
+ts' ],
    PasswordAuthentication  => [ \&_set_yesno, 'auth_password' ],
    PasswordPromptHost      => [ \&_set_yesno, 'password_prompt_host' 
+],
    PasswordPromptLogin     => [ \&_set_yesno, 'password_prompt_login'
+ ],
    Port                    => [ \&_set_str, 'port' ],
    Protocol                => [ \&_protocol ],
    RhostsAuthentication    => [ \&_set_yesno, 'auth_rhosts' ],
    RhostsRSAAuthentication => [ \&_set_yesno, 'auth_rhosts_rsa' ],
    RSAAuthentication       => [ \&_set_yesno, 'auth_rsa' ],
    UsePrivilegedPort       => [ \&_set_yesno, 'privileged' ],
    User                    => [ \&_set_str, 'user' ],
    UserKnownHostsFile      => [ \&_set_str, 'user_known_hosts' ],
);
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sub _create_socket {
    my $ssh = shift;
    my $sock = gensym;

        my ($p,$end,$delta) = (0,1,1);  # normally we use whatever por
+t we can get
           ($p,$end,$delta) = (1023,512,-1) if $ssh->{config}->get('pr
+ivileged');

        # allow an explicit bind address
    my $addr = $ssh->{config}->get('bind_address');
        $addr = inet_aton($addr) if $addr;
        ($p,$end,$delta) = (10000,65535,1) if $addr and not $p;
        $addr ||= INADDR_ANY;

    for(; $p != $end; $p += $delta) {
        socket($sock, AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, getprotobyname('tcp') || 0
+) ||
            croak "Net::SSH: Can't create socket: $!";
        last if not $p or bind($sock, sockaddr_in($p,$addr));
        if ($! =~ /(Address|The socket name is) already in use/i) {
            close($sock);
            next;
        }
        croak "Net::SSH: Can't bind socket to port $p: $!";
    }
        if($p) {
                $ssh->debug("Allocated local port $p.");
                $ssh->{config}->set('localport', $p);
        }

    $sock;
}
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and for fun, my usage:

use Net::SSH::Perl;

my %ssh_params = ( protocol => "2,1",
                identity_files => ["/home/codejerk/.ssh/test_id_dsa"],
                options => [    "BatchMode yes",
                                "ConnectTimeout 3",
                                "StrictHostKeyChecking no"],
                debug => 'true'
        );
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