lpar

# Runs a specified shell command in a separate thread.
# If it exceeds the given timeout in seconds, kills it.
# Returns any output produced by the command (stdout or stderr) as a String.
# Uses Kernel.select to wait up to the tick length (in seconds) between 
# checks on the command's status
#
# If you've got a cleaner way of doing this, I'd be interested to see it.
# If you think you can do it with Ruby's Timeout module, think again.
def run_with_timeout(command, timeout, tick)
  output = ''