下面是一个POSIX版本，它结合了前面的许多答案来提供以下特性:

子进程阻塞执行。 timeout函数在类成员函数上的使用。 严格要求终止时间。

下面是代码和一些测试用例:

import threading
import signal
import os
import time

class TerminateExecution(Exception):
    """
    Exception to indicate that execution has exceeded the preset running time.
    """


def quit_function(pid):
    # Killing all subprocesses
    os.setpgrp()
    os.killpg(0, signal.SIGTERM)

    # Killing the main thread
    os.kill(pid, signal.SIGTERM)


def handle_term(signum, frame):
    raise TerminateExecution()


def invoke_with_timeout(timeout, fn, *args, **kwargs):
    # Setting a sigterm handler and initiating a timer
    old_handler = signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, handle_term)
    timer = threading.Timer(timeout, quit_function, args=[os.getpid()])
    terminate = False

    # Executing the function
    timer.start()
    try:
        result = fn(*args, **kwargs)
    except TerminateExecution:
        terminate = True
    finally:
        # Restoring original handler and cancel timer
        signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, old_handler)
        timer.cancel()

    if terminate:
        raise BaseException("xxx")

    return result

### Test cases
def countdown(n):
    print('countdown started', flush=True)
    for i in range(n, -1, -1):
        print(i, end=', ', flush=True)
        time.sleep(1)
    print('countdown finished')
    return 1337


def really_long_function():
    time.sleep(10)


def really_long_function2():
    os.system("sleep 787")


# Checking that we can run a function as expected.
assert invoke_with_timeout(3, countdown, 1) == 1337

# Testing various scenarios
t1 = time.time()
try:
    print(invoke_with_timeout(1, countdown, 3))
    assert(False)
except BaseException:
    assert(time.time() - t1 < 1.1)
    print("All good", time.time() - t1)

t1 = time.time()
try:
    print(invoke_with_timeout(1, really_long_function2))
    assert(False)
except BaseException:
    assert(time.time() - t1 < 1.1)
    print("All good", time.time() - t1)


t1 = time.time()
try:
    print(invoke_with_timeout(1, really_long_function))
    assert(False)
except BaseException:
    assert(time.time() - t1 < 1.1)
    print("All good", time.time() - t1)

# Checking that classes are referenced and not
# copied (as would be the case with multiprocessing)


class X:
    def __init__(self):
        self.value = 0

    def set(self, v):
        self.value = v


x = X()
invoke_with_timeout(2, x.set, 9)
assert x.value == 9

伟大的，易于使用和可靠的PyPi项目超时装饰器(https://pypi.org/project/timeout-decorator/)

安装:

pip install timeout-decorator

用法:

import time
import timeout_decorator

@timeout_decorator.timeout(5)
def mytest():
    print "Start"
    for i in range(1,10):
        time.sleep(1)
        print "%d seconds have passed" % i

if __name__ == '__main__':
    mytest()

下面是对给定的基于线程的解决方案的轻微改进。

下面的代码支持异常:

def runFunctionCatchExceptions(func, *args, **kwargs):
    try:
        result = func(*args, **kwargs)
    except Exception, message:
        return ["exception", message]

    return ["RESULT", result]


def runFunctionWithTimeout(func, args=(), kwargs={}, timeout_duration=10, default=None):
    import threading
    class InterruptableThread(threading.Thread):
        def __init__(self):
            threading.Thread.__init__(self)
            self.result = default
        def run(self):
            self.result = runFunctionCatchExceptions(func, *args, **kwargs)
    it = InterruptableThread()
    it.start()
    it.join(timeout_duration)
    if it.isAlive():
        return default

    if it.result[0] == "exception":
        raise it.result[1]

    return it.result[1]

用5秒超时调用它:

result = timeout(remote_calculate, (myarg,), timeout_duration=5)

如果您在UNIX上运行，则可以使用信号包:

In [1]: import signal

# Register an handler for the timeout
In [2]: def handler(signum, frame):
   ...:     print("Forever is over!")
   ...:     raise Exception("end of time")
   ...: 

# This function *may* run for an indetermined time...
In [3]: def loop_forever():
   ...:     import time
   ...:     while 1:
   ...:         print("sec")
   ...:         time.sleep(1)
   ...:         
   ...:         

# Register the signal function handler
In [4]: signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, handler)
Out[4]: 0

# Define a timeout for your function
In [5]: signal.alarm(10)
Out[5]: 0

In [6]: try:
   ...:     loop_forever()
   ...: except Exception, exc: 
   ...:     print(exc)
   ....: 
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
sec
Forever is over!
end of time

# Cancel the timer if the function returned before timeout
# (ok, mine won't but yours maybe will :)
In [7]: signal.alarm(0)
Out[7]: 0

在调用signal.alarm(10)后10秒，调用处理程序。这会引发一个异常，您可以从常规Python代码中拦截该异常。

这个模块不能很好地使用线程(但是，谁能呢?)

注意，由于我们在超时发生时引发异常，它可能最终在函数内部被捕获并忽略，例如这样一个函数:

def loop_forever():
    while 1:
        print('sec')
        try:
            time.sleep(10)
        except:
            continue

#!/usr/bin/python2
import sys, subprocess, threading
proc = subprocess.Popen(sys.argv[2:])
timer = threading.Timer(float(sys.argv[1]), proc.terminate)
timer.start()
proc.wait()
timer.cancel()
exit(proc.returncode)

我怎么调用函数或者我怎么包装它，如果它超过5秒脚本取消它?

我发布了一个要点，用装饰器和threading.Timer解决了这个问题。下面是它的分类。

导入和设置兼容性

它是用Python 2和3测试的。它也应该在Unix/Linux和Windows下工作。

首先是进口。这些尝试保持代码的一致性，而不管Python版本:

from __future__ import print_function
import sys
import threading
from time import sleep
try:
    import thread
except ImportError:
    import _thread as thread

使用版本独立代码:

try:
    range, _print = xrange, print
    def print(*args, **kwargs): 
        flush = kwargs.pop('flush', False)
        _print(*args, **kwargs)
        if flush:
            kwargs.get('file', sys.stdout).flush()            
except NameError:
    pass

现在我们已经从标准库导入了我们的功能。

exit_after装饰

接下来，我们需要一个函数来终止子线程的main():

def quit_function(fn_name):
    # print to stderr, unbuffered in Python 2.
    print('{0} took too long'.format(fn_name), file=sys.stderr)
    sys.stderr.flush() # Python 3 stderr is likely buffered.
    thread.interrupt_main() # raises KeyboardInterrupt

这是decorator本身:

def exit_after(s):
    '''
    use as decorator to exit process if 
    function takes longer than s seconds
    '''
    def outer(fn):
        def inner(*args, **kwargs):
            timer = threading.Timer(s, quit_function, args=[fn.__name__])
            timer.start()
            try:
                result = fn(*args, **kwargs)
            finally:
                timer.cancel()
            return result
        return inner
    return outer

使用

下面这个用法直接回答了你关于5秒后退出的问题!：

@exit_after(5)
def countdown(n):
    print('countdown started', flush=True)
    for i in range(n, -1, -1):
        print(i, end=', ', flush=True)
        sleep(1)
    print('countdown finished')

演示:

>>> countdown(3)
countdown started
3, 2, 1, 0, countdown finished
>>> countdown(10)
countdown started
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, countdown took too long
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 11, in inner
  File "<stdin>", line 6, in countdown
KeyboardInterrupt

第二个函数调用将不会结束，相反，进程应该退出并返回一个跟踪!

KeyboardInterrupt并不总是停止一个睡眠线程

注意，在Windows上的Python 2中，睡眠并不总是被键盘中断中断，例如:

@exit_after(1)
def sleep10():
    sleep(10)
    print('slept 10 seconds')

>>> sleep10()
sleep10 took too long         # Note that it hangs here about 9 more seconds
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 11, in inner
  File "<stdin>", line 3, in sleep10
KeyboardInterrupt

它也不可能中断扩展中运行的代码，除非它显式地检查PyErr_CheckSignals()，参见忽略Cython, Python和KeyboardInterrupt

在任何情况下，我都会避免让线程休眠超过一秒钟——这在处理器时间上是一eon。

我怎么调用这个函数或者我把它包装在什么里面，这样如果它花费超过5秒脚本就会取消它并做其他事情?

要捕获它并做其他事情，你可以捕获KeyboardInterrupt。

>>> try:
...     countdown(10)
... except KeyboardInterrupt:
...     print('do something else')
... 
countdown started
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, countdown took too long
do something else