Operation time limit

Question

is there a way to time limit the oparations in python, eg:

try:
    cmds.file( file, o=1, pmt=0 )
except:
    print "Sorry, run out of time"
    pass

Answer 1

If you're on Mac or a Unix-based system, you can use signal.SIGALRM to forcibly time out functions that take too long, so your code would look like:

import signal

class TimeoutException(Exception):   # custom exception
    pass

def timeout_handler(signum, frame):   # raises exception when signal sent
    raise TimeoutException

# Makes it so that when SIGALRM signal sent, it calls the function timeout_handler, which raises your exception
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout_handler)

# Start the timer. Once 5 seconds are over, a SIGALRM signal is sent.
signal.alarm(5)
try:
    cmds.file( file, o=1, pmt=0 )
except TimeoutException:
    print "Sorry, run out of time" # you don't need pass because that's in the exception definition

Basically, you're creating a custom exception that's raised when the after the time limit is up (i.e., the SIGALRM is sent). You can of course tweak the time limit.