User input with a timeout, in a loop

Question

I'm trying to create a looping python function which performs a task and prompts the user for a response and if the user does not respond in the given time the sequence will repeat.

This is loosely based off this question: How to set time limit on raw_input

The task is represented by some_function(). The timeout is a variable in seconds. I have two problems with the following code:

1. The raw_input prompt does not timeout after the specified time of 4 seconds regardless of whether the user prompts or not.

2. When raw_input of 'q' is entered (without '' because I know anything typed is automatically entered as a string) the function does not exit the loop.

`

import thread
import threading
from time import sleep

def raw_input_with_timeout():
    prompt = "Hello is it me you're looking for?"
    timeout = 4
    astring = None
    some_function()
    timer = threading.Timer(timeout, thread.interrupt_main)
    try:
        timer.start()
        astring = raw_input(prompt)
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        pass
    timer.cancel()
    if astring.lower() != 'q':
        raw_input_with_timeout()
    else:
        print "goodbye"

`

Answer 1

Warning: This is intended to work in *nix and OSX as requested but definitely will not work in Windows.

I've used this modification of an ActiveState recipe as a basis for the code below. It's an easy-to-use object that can read input with a timeout. It uses polling to collect characters one at a time and emulate the behavior of raw_input() / input().

Input with Timeout

Note: apparently the _getch_nix() method below doesn't work for OP but it does for me on OSX 10.9.5. You might have luck calling _getch_osx() instead although it seems to work in 32-bit python only since Carbon doesn't fully support 64-bit.

import sys
import time


class TimeoutInput(object):
    def __init__(self, poll_period=0.05):
        import sys, tty, termios  # apparently timing of import is important if using an IDE
        self.poll_period = poll_period

    def _getch_nix(self):
        import sys, tty, termios
        from select import select
        fd = sys.stdin.fileno()
        old_settings = termios.tcgetattr(fd)
        try:
            tty.setraw(sys.stdin.fileno())
            [i, o, e] = select([sys.stdin.fileno()], [], [], self.poll_period)
            if i:
                ch = sys.stdin.read(1)
            else:
                ch = ''
        finally:
            termios.tcsetattr(fd, termios.TCSADRAIN, old_settings)
        return ch

    def _getch_osx(self):
        # from same discussion on the original ActiveState recipe:
        # http://code.activestate.com/recipes/134892-getch-like-unbuffered-character-reading-from-stdin/#c2
        import Carbon
        if Carbon.Evt.EventAvail(0x0008)[0] == 0:  # 0x0008 is the keyDownMask
            return ''
        else:
            # The event contains the following info:
            # (what,msg,when,where,mod)=Carbon.Evt.GetNextEvent(0x0008)[1]
            #
            # The message (msg) contains the ASCII char which is
            # extracted with the 0x000000FF charCodeMask; this
            # number is converted to an ASCII character with chr() and
            # returned
            (what,msg,when,where,mod)=Carbon.Evt.GetNextEvent(0x0008)[1]
            return chr(msg & 0x000000FF)

    def input(self, prompt=None, timeout=None,
              extend_timeout_with_input=True, require_enter_to_confirm=True):
        """timeout: float seconds or None (blocking)"""
        prompt = prompt or ''
        sys.stdout.write(prompt)  # this avoids a couple of problems with printing
        sys.stdout.flush()  # make sure prompt appears before we start waiting for input
        input_chars = []
        start_time = time.time()
        received_enter = False
        while (time.time() - start_time) < timeout:
            # keep polling for characters
            c = self._getch_osx()  # self.poll_period determines spin speed
            if c in ('\n', '\r'):
                received_enter = True
                break
            elif c:
                input_chars.append(c)
                sys.stdout.write(c)
                sys.stdout.flush()
                if extend_timeout_with_input:
                    start_time = time.time()
        sys.stdout.write('\n')  # just for consistency with other "prints"
        sys.stdout.flush()
        captured_string = ''.join(input_chars)
        if require_enter_to_confirm:
            return_string = captured_string if received_enter else ''
        else:
            return_string = captured_string
        return return_string

Test it

# this should work like raw_input() except it will time out
ti = TimeoutInput(poll_period=0.05)
s = ti.input(prompt='wait for timeout:', timeout=5.0,
             extend_timeout_with_input=False, require_enter_to_confirm=False)
print(s)

Repeated Input

This implements your original intention as I understand it. I don't see any value to making recursive calls - I think what you want is just to get input repeatedly? Please correct me if that is wrong.

ti = TimeoutInput()
prompt = "Hello is it me you're looking for?"
timeout = 4.0
while True:
    # some_function()
    s = ti.input(prompt, timeout)
    if s.lower() == 'q':
        print "goodbye"
        break

Answer 2

You can set an alarm before input and then bind the alarm to a custom handler. after the given period alarms goes off, handler raises an exception, and your custom input function may handle the rest.
a quick example:

import signal
class InputTimedOut(Exception):
    pass

def inputTimeOutHandler(signum, frame):
    "called when read times out"
    print 'interrupted!'
    raise InputTimedOut

signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, inputTimeOutHandler)

def input_with_timeout(timeout=0):
    foo = ""
    try:
            print 'You have {0} seconds to type in your stuff...'.format(timeout)
            signal.alarm(timeout)
            foo = raw_input()
            signal.alarm(0)    #disable alarm
    except InputTimedOut:
            pass
    return foo

s = input_with_timeout(timeout=3)
print 'You typed', s

Credit where it is due: Keyboard input with timeout in Python