[Nagiosplug-devel] Suggested code addition to perl Nagios::Plugin module - instance methods for starting and resetting a global alarm()

[Max]

Hi,

We use this extensively in our scripts, simple addition, but keeps
code nice and clean.  I realize this is simplistic and will break if
the user uses a module that sets alarm() after the plugin alarm is
set, we mostly use this in my subclass of Nagios::Plugin,
Nagios::Plugin::SNMP, but use it for some non-SNMP plugins as well.

- Max

Example use:

my $plugin = Nagios::Plugin->new(...);

#  Starts a timer only if the user provided a positive integer to --timeout;
#  If timeout is reached, will exit with UNKNOWN and error message.

$plugin->start_timer();

... code
... code

# All done, reset so alarm is not triggered.
$plugin->reset_timer();

- Max

Code:

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
# NP - time out helpers

# Start a global timer for the plugin
sub start_timer {

    my $self = shift;
    my $timeout = $self->opts->get('timeout');

    return if ((! defined $timeout) || ($timeout < 1));

    $SIG{'ALRM'} = sub {
        $self->nagios_exit(UNKNOWN, "Plugin timeout (${timeout}s) exceeded!");
    };

    alarm($timeout);

}

# Reset the global counter
sub reset_timer {
    my $self = shift;
    alarm(0);
}