Want to Implement Timeout for one function in C

Question

Here i have one function which is listen mode. this function listing something which i got form some device.

Here when my function is in listen mode that time i want to create timeout. if i will not get any response from particular device than i want o exit from this function and have to notify.

if during this timeout period if i will get response from device than i have to continue with work and stop this timeout and there is no limits to complete this work in any time duration.

So how can i implement this thing for a function.

Any body please can me help me to implement this thing with timeout functionality.

Answer 1

Depending on how you are waiting for a response from this device, the answer to your question will be different. The basic framework is:

int do_something_with_device()
{
    if (!wait_for_response_from_device()) {
        return TIMEOUT_ERROR;
    }
    // continue with processing
}

As for how you implement wait_for_response_from_device(), well, every device is different. If you're using sockets or pipes, use select(). If you're interfacing with something that requires a busy-wait loop, it might look like:

int wait_for_response_from_device()
{
    time_t start = time(NULL);
    while (time(NULL) - start < TIMEOUT) {
        if (check_device_ready()) {
            return 1;
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

Naturally, the implementation of check_device_ready() would be up to you.