How to add a Timeout to Console.ReadLine()?

Question

I have a console app in which I want to give the user x seconds to respond to the prompt. If no input is made after a certain period of time, program logic should

Answer 1

I had a unique situation of having a Windows Application (Windows Service). When running the program interactively Environment.IsInteractive (VS Debugger or from cmd.exe), I used AttachConsole/AllocConsole to get my stdin/stdout. To keep the process from ending while the work was being done, the UI Thread calls Console.ReadKey(false). I wanted to cancel the waiting the UI thread was doing from another thread, so I came up with a modification to the solution by @JSquaredD.

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

internal class PressAnyKey
{
  private static Thread inputThread;
  private static AutoResetEvent getInput;
  private static AutoResetEvent gotInput;
  private static CancellationTokenSource cancellationtoken;

  static PressAnyKey()
  {
    // Static Constructor called when WaitOne is called (technically Cancel too, but who cares)
    getInput = new AutoResetEvent(false);
    gotInput = new AutoResetEvent(false);
    inputThread = new Thread(ReaderThread);
    inputThread.IsBackground = true;
    inputThread.Name = "PressAnyKey";
    inputThread.Start();
  }

  private static void ReaderThread()
  {
    while (true)
    {
      // ReaderThread waits until PressAnyKey is called
      getInput.WaitOne();
      // Get here 
      // Inner loop used when a caller uses PressAnyKey
      while (!Console.KeyAvailable && !cancellationtoken.IsCancellationRequested)
      {
        Thread.Sleep(50);
      }
      // Release the thread that called PressAnyKey
      gotInput.Set();
    }
  }

  /// 

  /// Signals the thread that called WaitOne should be allowed to continue
  /// 
  public static void Cancel()
  {
    // Trigger the alternate ending condition to the inner loop in ReaderThread
    if(cancellationtoken== null) throw new InvalidOperationException("Must call WaitOne before Cancelling");
    cancellationtoken.Cancel();
  }

  /// 

  /// Wait until a key is pressed or  is called by another thread
  /// 
  public static void WaitOne()
  {
    if(cancellationtoken==null || cancellationtoken.IsCancellationRequested) throw new InvalidOperationException("Must cancel a pending wait");
    cancellationtoken = new CancellationTokenSource();
    // Release the reader thread
    getInput.Set();
    // Calling thread will wait here indefiniately 
    // until a key is pressed, or Cancel is called
    gotInput.WaitOne();
  }    
}