[Python-Dev] Add timeout to subprocess.py?

[Guido van Rossum]

A frequent requirement seems to be to run a subprocess but give up if
it takes more than N seconds. I suppose you can hack this using the
poll() method and time.sleep(), but perhaps a more direct approach can
be added to the subprocess module? This should directly support
reading output / stderr until the time limit is up as well. Any
takers?

--
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)