any idea on how to timeout the read statement for ksh?
for bash u can use read -t option
-t timeout
Cause read to time out and return failure if a complete
line of input is not read within timeout seconds. This
option has no effect if read is not reading input from
the terminal or a pipe.
Not sure, if this is the right answer. man ksh says
TMOUT If set to a positive integer in an interactive shell, it speci-
fies the maximum number of seconds the shell will wait for input
after printing the primary prompt (PS1). If the time is
exceeded, the shell exits.
This works in the newer versions of the Korn shell like Korn93. Otherwise, Perderabo has posted examples of timing out a read by using coprocesses. Search the form on read timeout.