Need basic timeout interrupt from within a C program (Linux)

[Gauthier, Dave]

Hi:

This may or may not be a simple one.  Before arriving at a "gets", I want to
be able to start a timeout timer.  If the timeout expires before the user
types anything for the gets, I want to call a function that I write, a
"timeout handler" if you will.  Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance for any pointers
-dave