trap cleanup 1 2 3 15
foo=`cat`

text='Éé'  # UTF-8; shows up as Ãé on a latin1 terminal
csi='␛['; dsr_cpr="${csi}6n"; dsr_ok="${csi}5n"  # ␛ is an escape character
stty_save=`stty -g`
cleanup () { stty "$stty_save"; }
trap 'cleanup; exit 120' 0 1 2 3 15     # cleanup code
stty eol 0 eof n -echo                # Input will end with `0n`
# echo-n is a function that outputs its argument without a newline
echo-n "$dsr_cpr$dsr_ok"              # Ask the terminal to report the cursor position
initial_report=`tr -dc ;0123456789`  # Expect ␛[42;10R␛[0n for y=42,x=10
echo-n "$text$dsr_cpr$dsr_ok"
final_report=`tr -dc ;0123456789`
cleanup
# Compute and return initial_x - final_x

foo=`{ { cat 1>&3; kill 0; } | { sleep 2; kill 0; } } 3>&1`

#!/bin/sh
foo=`sh -ic '{ cat 1>&3; kill 0; } | { sleep 2; kill 0; }' 3>&1 2>/dev/null`
[ -n "$foo" ] && echo got: "$foo" || echo timeouted

foo=`sh -ic 'exec 3>&1 2>/dev/null; { cat 1>&3; kill 0; } | { sleep 2; kill 0; }'`

me=$$
(sleep 2; kill $me >/dev/null 2>&1) & nuker=$!
# do whatever
kill $nuker >/dev/null 2>&1

#!/bin/sh

# Execute a command with a timeout

# Author:
#    http://www.pixelbeat.org/
# Notes:
#    Note there is a timeout command packaged with coreutils since v7.0
#    If the timeout occurs the exit status is 124.
#    There is an asynchronous (and buggy) equivalent of this
#    script packaged with bash (under /usr/share/doc/ in my distro),
#    which I only noticed after writing this.
#    I noticed later again that there is a C equivalent of this packaged
#    with satan by Wietse Venema, and copied to forensics by Dan Farmer.
# Changes:
#    V1.0, Nov  3 2006, Initial release
#    V1.1, Nov 20 2007, Brad Greenlee <brad@footle.org>
#                       Make more portable by using the 'CHLD'
#                       signal spec rather than 17.
#    V1.3, Oct 29 2009, Ján Sáreník <jasan@x31.com>
#                       Even though this runs under dash,ksh etc.
#                       it doesn't actually timeout. So enforce bash for now.
#                       Also change exit on timeout from 128 to 124
#                       to match coreutils.
#    V2.0, Oct 30 2009, Ján Sáreník <jasan@x31.com>
#                       Rewritten to cover compatibility with other
#                       Bourne shell implementations (pdksh, dash)

if [ "$#" -lt "2" ]; then
    echo "Usage:   `basename $0` timeout_in_seconds command" >&2
    echo "Example: `basename $0` 2 sleep 3 || echo timeout" >&2
    exit 1
fi

cleanup()
{
    trap - ALRM               #reset handler to default
    kill -ALRM $a 2>/dev/null #stop timer subshell if running
    kill $! 2>/dev/null &&    #kill last job
      exit 124                #exit with 124 if it was running
}

watchit()
{
    trap "cleanup" ALRM
    sleep $1& wait
    kill -ALRM $$
}

watchit $1& a=$!         #start the timeout
shift                    #first param was timeout for sleep
trap "cleanup" ALRM INT  #cleanup after timeout
"$@" < /dev/tty & wait $!; RET=$?    #start the job wait for it and save its return value
kill -ALRM $a            #send ALRM signal to watchit
wait $a                  #wait for watchit to finish cleanup
exit $RET                #return the value

$ nc -l 0 2345 | cat &  # output come from here
   $ nc -w 5 0 2345   # input come from here and times out after 5 sec

$ foo=`nc -l 0 2222 | nc -w 5 0 2222`

#!/bin/sh
stty -echo -onlcr
# GNU script
foo=`script -q -c 'sh -c "{ cat 1>&3; kill 0; } | { sleep 5; kill 0; }" 3>&1 2>/dev/null' /dev/null`
# FreeBSD script
#foo=`script -q /dev/null sh -c '{ cat 1>&3; kill 0; } | { sleep 5; kill 0; }' 3>&1 2>/dev/null`
stty echo onlcr
echo "foo: $foo"


# alternative without: stty -echo -onlcr
# cr=`printf 'r'`
# foo=`script -q -c 'sh -c "{ { cat 1>&3; kill 0; } | { sleep 5; kill 0; } } 3>&1 2>/dev/null"' /dev/null | sed -e "s/${cr}$//" -ne 'p;N'`  # GNU
# foo=`script -q /dev/null sh -c '{ { cat 1>&3; kill 0; } | { sleep 5; kill 0; } } 3>&1 2>/dev/null' | sed -e "s/${cr}$//" -ne 'p;N'`  # FreeBSD
# echo "foo: $foo"

eval 'set -m ; ( ... ) ; '"$(set +o)"

f() { date ; kill 0 ; }

echo Before
eval 'set -m ; ( f ) ; '"$(set +o)"
echo After

$ sh /tmp/foo.sh
Before
Mon 14 Mar 2016 17:22:41 PDT
/tmp/foo.sh: line 4: 17763 Terminated: 15          ( f )
After

timeout_handler () { echo Timeout. goodbye.;  exit 1; }
trap timeout_handler ALRM
( sleep 60; kill -ALRM $$ ) &