Is it possible to stop exec or eval in Python after a certain amount of time?

Question

I want to stop the execution of the exec or eval commands if they take too long to complete. I know how to do it using multiprocessing but I was wondering if there's an easier solution. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Even though you said you can do it, here's my solution:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Context manager to limit execution time."""

import multiprocessing
import time
from typing import Callable


def run_until(seconds: int, func: Callable, *args) -> None:
    """Run a function until timeout in seconds reached."""
    with multiprocessing.Pool(processes=2) as pool:
        result = pool.apply_async(func, [(*args)])
        try:
            result.get(timeout=seconds)
        except multiprocessing.TimeoutError:
            pass


if __name__ == "__main__":
    run_until(1, time.sleep, 20) # exits after 1 second