#!/usr/bin/perl

# https://www.perl-community.de/bat/poard/thread/19553

use strict;
use warnings;

my $cmd     = 'ping';
my $host    = '127.0.0.1';
my $timeout = 3;
my @cmd     = ( "no output yet" );

eval {
  local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "alarm\n" };
  alarm $timeout;

  open my $pipe, '-|', "$cmd -c 5 $host"
    or die "Could not open pipe: $!";
  while ( my $line = <$pipe> ) {
    push @cmd, $line;
  }
  close $pipe;

  alarm 0;
 };

if ($@) {
        print "Output: @cmd\n";

        print "timed out - $@\n";
        warn unless $@ eq "alarm\n";
} else {
        print "Output: @cmd\n";

        print "No time out\n";
}