import signal
def handle(a,b):
   print "received signal"
signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, handle)
signal.alarm(5)
name = raw_input('Please enter your name within 5
seconds: ')


waits for input forever instead of getting the signal
thrown
after 5 seconds.  If you wait more than 5 seconds before
typing your name, the signal does get handled after you
finally enter your input.

The workaround of calling sys.stdin.readline() instead of
raw_input does the right thing, so something is funny about
the raw_input function.