signals and threads also mix badly. Something to note is that SIGIO is SIG_IGN in python, and this is inherited; doesn't sound like your problem, but it's something to know when doing that.
I asked about a similar problem ("why isn't there a way to exec a pipeline with array args") and got the answer that once you get beyond commands.getstatusoutput, you tend to have hard-to-generalize things that you want. I don't agree, but haven't gotten around to posting my pipeline class.
If the child isn't dealing with timeouts itself, consider just setting an alarm() after the fork, instead of having the parent try to do it...
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signals and threads also mix badly. Something to note is that SIGIO is SIG_IGN in python, and this is inherited; doesn't sound like your problem, but it's something to know when doing that.
I asked about a similar problem ("why isn't there a way to exec a pipeline with array args") and got the answer that once you get beyond commands.getstatusoutput, you tend to have hard-to-generalize things that you want. I don't agree, but haven't gotten around to posting my pipeline class.
If the child isn't dealing with timeouts itself, consider just setting an alarm() after the fork, instead of having the parent try to do it...