alarm not triggering SIGALRM on Windows 2003

[perlofwisdom]

I just learning how to use SIGALRM, and have run into a little problem that I need your help with. The following code runs as expected on Unix (solaris) and on an MS Win XP desktop, but fails on MS Win Server 2003 R2. I understand that it's a mistake to intermix sleep and alarm, but it's sufficient for this example (the "real" code doesn't "sleep", and has the same problem).

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use warnings;

$|                  = 1;
$SIG{'ALRM'}        = '_ALARM';
$SIG{'QUIT'}        = '_QUIT';

my  $s_parent       = 0;
my  $patience_level = 5;
my  $doddling_time  = 10;

my  $child_pid      = fork();
if ($child_pid) {               # If parent process
    $s_parent       = 1;
    print "Parent: [tapping toe] You have $patience_level seconds to f
+inish your homework ($child_pid)!\n";
    alarm $patience_level;
    my $job_well_done = wait();
    print "Parent: Well, that's over ($job_well_done).\n";
} elsif (defined $child_pid) {  # If child process
    print "Child.: [doddling...] OK, OK, just $doddling_time more seco
+nds, ...please!?!\n";
    sleep $doddling_time;
  # The following is unlikely if patience_level < doddling_time
    print "Child.: Nana-nana-na-na - all finished ($$).\n";
    exit;
} else {                        #   Error on fork
    die "!!! Failed to fork !!!..: $!\n";
}

print "The end.\n";
exit;

sub _ALARM {
    if ($s_parent) {
        print "Parent: Time's up kiddo...\n";
        if (kill 0, $child_pid) {
            print "Parent: $child_pid is gonna get spanked!\n";
            my $spank = kill 'QUIT', $child_pid;
            print "Pain level: $spank\n";
        } else {
            warn  "$child_pid has hidden!\n";
        }
    } else {
        print "Child.: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!\n";
    }
}

sub _QUIT {
    print "Child.: Argh! You didn't have to spank me! ($$)\n";
    exit;
}

I expect to see this output:

Parent: [tapping toe] You have 5 seconds to finish your homework (-670
+8)!
Child.: [doddling...] OK, OK, just 10 more seconds, ...please!?!
Parent: Time's up kiddo...
Parent: -6708 is gonna get spanked!
Pain level: 1
Child.: Argh! You didn't have to spank me! (-6708)
Parent: Well, that's over (-6708).
The end.

But on the server in question, I see:

Parent: [tapping toe] You have 5 seconds to finish your homework (-588
+0)!
Child.: [doddling...] OK, OK, just 10 more seconds, ...please!?!
Child.: Nana-nana-na-na - all finished (-5880).
Parent: Well, that's over (-5880).
The end.

My apologies in advance to the non-spankers out there - this was just an effort to make light of a situation that's been frustrating. No children were actually harmed in writing (or executing) this code ;).

Thanks again for your help!

[thunders]

Are you using an older version of perl on the Windows 2003 server? According to perlport for perl 5.8.0 alarm() was not implemented on Win32 systems.

But by perl 5.8.4 it appears to no longer be an portability issue.

[perlofwisdom]

From the perl -V command:

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 4) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=MSWin32, osvers=4.0, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
    :
    :

[desemondo]

I'd highly recommend you consider changing your Win2003 (production?) box to use the same Perl version as your winXP (development?) box.

Not only will you run into little quirks with Perl itself (which it sounds like you already have) but you'll also run into quirks and differences in the Core Perl modules...

Most module maintainers try to keep a fair amount of backward compatibility, but eventually the deprecated methods get turfed...

[thunders]

This thread has some relevant background, though it doesn't look like there's a solution. I found it in perlbug as well, it's a Windows 2003 specific bug, and appears to still be an open issue.

Update: Perhaps the alarm() or ualarm() functions in Time::HiRes will allow you to work around the issue?

[afoken]

See also Re: Signals in Strawberry Perl: Name or number?

Alexander