How to cancel a function call if it takes too long to respond in C?

Question

Is there a way to call a function, and then cancel or skip over the call if it takes too long to respond?

I'm simulating an ftp connection, and I'm receiving a response from a server using this function call:

status = receiveMessage(ccSocket, replyMsg, sizeof(replyMsg), &msgSize);

Is there a way to wait, say, 5 seconds, and skip over the function call if it has not yet responded?

Answer 1

Many different methods are available for you to solve this problem.

1. Using a "select" call, allow your system to check if there is data available, using a given timeout which allows you to cancel the check if it takes to long.
2. Asynchronous design enables you to "watch" a socket without ever having to "wait" on that socket, meaning your process is only ever run when it is known that data is available 3
3. Non-Blocking design allows you to use your processor for many different reasons, where a communication on a socket should not hold your processor up, similar is a way, to Async comms, but with a small twist