Helper class for efficiently invoking tasks with timeout

gistfile1.cs

#region (c)2009-2011 Lokad - New BSD license

// Copyright (c) Lokad 2009 
// Company: http://www.lokad.com
// This code is released under the terms of the new BSD licence

#endregion

#if !SILVERLIGHT2

using System;
using System.Threading;
using Lokad.Quality;

namespace Lokad.Threading
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Helper class for invoking tasks with timeout. Overhead is 0,005 ms.
	/// </summary>
	/// <typeparam name="TResult">The type of the result.</typeparam>
	[Immutable]
	public sealed class WaitFor<TResult>
	{
		readonly TimeSpan _timeout;

		/// <summary>
		/// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="WaitFor{T}"/> class, 
		/// using the specified timeout for all operations.
		/// </summary>
		/// <param name="timeout">The timeout.</param>
		public WaitFor(TimeSpan timeout)
		{
			_timeout = timeout;
		}

		/// <summary>
		/// Executes the specified function within the current thread, aborting it
		/// if it does not complete within the specified timeout interval. 
		/// </summary>
		/// <param name="function">The function.</param>
		/// <returns>result of the function</returns>
		/// <remarks>
		/// The performance trick is that we do not interrupt the current
		/// running thread. Instead, we just create a watcher that will sleep
		/// until the originating thread terminates or until the timeout is
		/// elapsed.
		/// </remarks>
		/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException">if function is null</exception>
		/// <exception cref="TimeoutException">if the function does not finish in time </exception>
		public TResult Run(Func<TResult> function)
		{
			if (function == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("function");

			var sync = new object();
			var isCompleted = false;

			WaitCallback watcher = obj =>
				{
					var watchedThread = obj as Thread;

					lock (sync)
					{
						if (!isCompleted)
						{
							Monitor.Wait(sync, _timeout);
						}
					}

                    if (!isCompleted)
                    {
                        watchedThread.Abort();
                    }
				};

			try
			{
				ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(watcher, Thread.CurrentThread);
				return function();
			}
			catch (ThreadAbortException)
			{
				// This is our own exception.
				Thread.ResetAbort();

				throw new TimeoutException(string.Format("The operation has timed out after {0}.", _timeout));
			}
			finally
			{
				lock (sync)
				{
					isCompleted = true;
					Monitor.Pulse(sync);
				}
			}
		}

		/// <summary>
		/// Executes the specified function within the current thread, aborting it
		/// if it does not complete within the specified timeout interval.
		/// </summary>
		/// <param name="timeout">The timeout.</param>
		/// <param name="function">The function.</param>
		/// <returns>result of the function</returns>
		/// <remarks>
		/// The performance trick is that we do not interrupt the current
		/// running thread. Instead, we just create a watcher that will sleep
		/// until the originating thread terminates or until the timeout is
		/// elapsed.
		/// </remarks>
		/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException">if function is null</exception>
		/// <exception cref="TimeoutException">if the function does not finish in time </exception>
		public static TResult Run(TimeSpan timeout, Func<TResult> function)
		{
			return new WaitFor<TResult>(timeout).Run(function);
		}
	}
}

#endif

Copied from https://github.com/Lokad/lokad-shared-libraries/blob/master/Source/Lokad.Shared/Threading/WaitFor.cs