#!/usr/bin/perl

$| = 1;

# thousands of ways to do this
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

### set up an alarm
my $timeout = 4*60; # apache normally times out after 5 min
print "<!--\n";  # hide output
$SIG{ALRM} = sub{ print ".\n"; alarm($timeout); };
# the timeout will send something to the browser every
# now and then to keep it from timing out

alarm($timeout);
&do_something_heinous();
alarm(0);
print "-->\n";  # don't need to hide output anymore

print "All done\n";
exit;

sub do_something_heinous {
  sleep(6 * 60);
}