add timeout function

src/util.jl

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 module util
   
 export timedifference, showstracktrace, findHighestIndexKey, uuid4snakecase, replaceDictKeys,
-        findMatchingDictKey, textToDict, randstring, randstrings
+        findMatchingDictKey, textToDict, randstring, randstrings, timeout
 
 using JSON3, DataStructures, Distributions, Random, Dates, UUIDs, MQTTClient
 
@@ -369,6 +369,49 @@ end
 
 
 
+""" Execute a function with timer.
+
+# Arguments
+  - `f::Function`
+      a function to run
+  - `timeoutwindow::Integer``
+      timeout in seconds
+
+# Keyword Argument
+  - `fargs`
+    arguments for the function
+
+# Return
+  - task result otherwise timeout message
+
+# Example
+  ```jldoctest
+julia> function testfunc(x)
+          sleep(x)
+          return "task done"
+        end
+julia> result = timeout(testfunc, 10; fargs=20)
+"task timed out"
+julia> result = timeout(testfunc, 20; fargs=10)
+"task done"
+```
+
+#  Signature
+"""
+function timeout(f::Function, timeoutwindow::Integer; fargs=nothing, timeoutmsg="task timed out")
+  tsk = @task f(fargs)
+  schedule(tsk)
+  Timer(timeoutwindow) do timer
+      istaskdone(tsk) || Base.throwto(tsk, InterruptException())
+  end
+  try
+      fetch(tsk)
+  catch _;
+    timeoutmsg
+  end
+end
+
+