diff --git a/src/tools.rs b/src/tools.rs
index d1ebe9d5..51452fe1 100644
--- a/src/tools.rs
+++ b/src/tools.rs
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ use std::io::ErrorKind;
 
 use std::os::unix::io::AsRawFd;
 
+pub mod timer;
+
 pub fn file_set_contents<P: AsRef<Path>>(
     path: P,
     data: &[u8],
diff --git a/src/tools/timer.rs b/src/tools/timer.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..22f3bd4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/tools/timer.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,359 @@
+use std::{io, mem};
+use std::time::Duration;
+
+use libc::{pid_t, clockid_t, c_int};
+
+/// Timers can use various clocks. See `timer_create(2)`.
+pub enum Clock {
+    /// Use `CLOCK_REALTIME` for the timer.
+    Realtime,
+    /// Use `CLOCK_MONOTONIC` for the timer.
+    Monotonic,
+}
+
+/// Strong thread-id type to prevent accidental conversion of pid_t.
+pub struct Tid(pid_t);
+
+/// Convenience helper to get the current thread ID suitable to pass to a
+/// `TimerEvent::ThreadSignal` entry.
+pub fn gettid() -> Tid {
+    Tid(unsafe { libc::syscall(libc::SYS_gettid) } as pid_t)
+}
+
+/// Strong signal type which is more advanced than nix::sys::signal::Signal as
+/// it doesn't prevent you from using signals that the nix crate is unaware
+/// of...!
+pub struct Signal(c_int);
+
+impl Into<c_int> for Signal {
+    fn into(self) -> c_int {
+        self.0
+    }
+}
+
+impl From<c_int> for Signal {
+    fn from(v: c_int) -> Signal {
+        Signal(v)
+    }
+}
+
+/// When instantiating a Timer, it needs to have an event type associated with
+/// it to be fired whenever the timer expires. Most of the time this will be a
+/// `Signal`. Sometimes we need to be able to send signals to specific threads.
+pub enum TimerEvent {
+    /// This will act like passing `NULL` to `timer_create()`, which maps to
+    /// using the same as `Signal(SIGALRM)`.
+    None,
+
+    /// When the timer expires, send a specific signal to the current process.
+    Signal(Signal),
+
+    /// When the timer expires, send a specific signal to a specific thread.
+    ThreadSignal(Tid, Signal),
+
+    /// Convenience value to send a signal to the current thread. This is
+    /// equivalent to using ThreadSignal(gettid(), signal).
+    ThisThreadSignal(Signal),
+}
+
+// timer_t is a pointer type, so we create a strongly typed internal handle
+// type for it
+#[repr(C)]
+struct InternalTimerT(u32);
+type TimerT = *mut InternalTimerT;
+
+// These wrappers are defined in -lrt.
+#[link(name="rt")]
+extern "C" {
+    fn timer_create(
+        clockid: clockid_t,
+        evp: *mut libc::sigevent,
+        timer: *mut TimerT,
+        ) -> c_int;
+    fn timer_delete(timer: *const TimerT) -> c_int;
+    fn timer_settime(
+        timerid: TimerT,
+        flags: c_int,
+        new_value: *const libc::itimerspec,
+        old_value: *mut libc::itimerspec,
+        ) -> c_int;
+}
+
+/// Represents a POSIX per-process timer as created via `timer_create(2)`.
+pub struct Timer {
+    timer: TimerT,
+}
+
+/// Timer specification used to arm a `Timer`.
+pub struct TimerSpec {
+    /// The timeout to the next timer event.
+    pub value: Option<Duration>,
+
+    /// When a timer expires, it may be automatically rearmed with another
+    /// timeout. This will keep happening until this is explicitly disabled
+    /// or the timer deleted.
+    pub interval: Option<Duration>,
+}
+
+// Helpers to convert between libc::timespec and Option<Duration>
+fn opt_duration_to_timespec(v: Option<Duration>) -> libc::timespec {
+    match v {
+        None => libc::timespec {
+            tv_sec: 0,
+            tv_nsec: 0,
+        },
+        Some(value) => libc::timespec {
+            tv_sec: value.as_secs() as i64,
+            tv_nsec: value.subsec_nanos() as i64,
+        },
+    }
+}
+
+fn timespec_to_opt_duration(v: libc::timespec) -> Option<Duration> {
+    if v.tv_sec == 0 && v.tv_nsec == 0 {
+        None
+    } else {
+        Some(Duration::new(v.tv_sec as u64, v.tv_nsec as u32))
+    }
+}
+
+impl TimerSpec {
+    // Helpers to convert between TimerSpec and libc::itimerspec
+    fn to_itimerspec(&self) -> libc::itimerspec {
+        libc::itimerspec {
+            it_value: opt_duration_to_timespec(self.value),
+            it_interval: opt_duration_to_timespec(self.interval),
+        }
+    }
+
+    fn from_itimerspec(ts: libc::itimerspec) -> Self {
+        TimerSpec {
+            value: timespec_to_opt_duration(ts.it_value),
+            interval: timespec_to_opt_duration(ts.it_interval),
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Create an empty timer specification representing a disabled timer.
+    pub fn new() -> Self {
+        TimerSpec { value: None, interval: None }
+    }
+
+    /// Change the specification to have a specific value.
+    pub fn value(self, value: Option<Duration>) -> Self {
+        TimerSpec { value, interval: self.interval }
+    }
+
+    /// Change the specification to have a specific interval.
+    pub fn interval(self, interval: Option<Duration>) -> Self {
+        TimerSpec { value: self.value, interval }
+    }
+}
+
+impl Timer {
+    /// Create a Timer object governing a POSIX timer.
+    pub fn create(clock: Clock, event: TimerEvent) -> io::Result<Timer> {
+        // Map from our clock type to the libc id
+        let clkid = match clock {
+            Clock::Realtime => libc::CLOCK_REALTIME,
+            Clock::Monotonic => libc::CLOCK_MONOTONIC,
+        } as clockid_t;
+
+        // Map the TimerEvent to libc::sigevent
+        let mut ev: libc::sigevent = unsafe { mem::zeroed() };
+        match event {
+            TimerEvent::None => ev.sigev_notify = libc::SIGEV_NONE,
+            TimerEvent::Signal(signo) => {
+                ev.sigev_signo = signo.0;
+                ev.sigev_notify = libc::SIGEV_SIGNAL;
+            }
+            TimerEvent::ThreadSignal(tid, signo) => {
+                ev.sigev_signo = signo.0;
+                ev.sigev_notify = libc::SIGEV_THREAD_ID;
+                ev.sigev_notify_thread_id = tid.0;
+            }
+            TimerEvent::ThisThreadSignal(signo) => {
+                ev.sigev_signo = signo.0;
+                ev.sigev_notify = libc::SIGEV_THREAD_ID;
+                ev.sigev_notify_thread_id = gettid().0;
+            }
+        }
+
+        // Create the timer
+        let mut timer: TimerT = unsafe { mem::zeroed() };
+        let rc = unsafe { timer_create(clkid, &mut ev, &mut timer) };
+        if rc != 0 {
+            Err(io::Error::last_os_error())
+        } else {
+            Ok(Timer { timer })
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Arm a timer. This returns the previous timer specification.
+    pub fn arm(&mut self, spec: TimerSpec) -> io::Result<TimerSpec>
+    {
+        let newspec = spec.to_itimerspec();
+        let mut oldspec: libc::itimerspec = unsafe { mem::uninitialized() };
+
+        let rc = unsafe {
+            timer_settime(self.timer, 0, &newspec, &mut oldspec)
+        };
+        if rc != 0 {
+            return Err(io::Error::last_os_error());
+        }
+
+        Ok(TimerSpec::from_itimerspec(oldspec))
+    }
+}
+
+impl Drop for Timer {
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        unsafe {
+            timer_delete(&self.timer);
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// This is the signal number we use in our timeout implementations. We expect
+/// the signal handler for this signal to never be replaced by some other
+/// library. If this does happen, we need to find another signal. There should
+/// be plenty.
+/// Currently this is SIGRTMIN+4, the 5th real-time signal. glibc reserves the
+/// first two for pthread internals.
+pub const SIGTIMEOUT: Signal = Signal(32 + 4);
+
+// Our timeout handler does exactly nothing. We only need it to interrupt
+// system calls.
+extern "C" fn sig_timeout_handler(_: c_int) {
+}
+
+// See setup_timeout_handler().
+fn do_setup_timeout_handler() -> io::Result<()> {
+    // Unfortunately nix::sys::signal::Signal cannot represent real time
+    // signals, so we need to use libc instead...
+    //
+    // This WOULD be a nicer impl though:
+    //nix::sys::signal::sigaction(
+    //    SIGTIMEOUT,
+    //    nix::sys::signal::SigAction::new(
+    //        nix::sys::signal::SigHandler::Handler(sig_timeout_handler),
+    //        nix::sys::signal::SaFlags::empty(),
+    //        nix::sys::signal::SigSet::all()))
+    //    .map(|_|())
+
+    unsafe {
+        let mut sa_mask: libc::sigset_t = mem::uninitialized();
+        if libc::sigemptyset(&mut sa_mask) != 0 ||
+           libc::sigaddset(&mut sa_mask, SIGTIMEOUT.0) != 0
+        {
+            return Err(io::Error::last_os_error());
+        }
+
+        let sa = libc::sigaction {
+            sa_sigaction:
+                // libc::sigaction uses `usize` for the function pointer...
+                sig_timeout_handler as *const extern "C" fn(i32) as usize,
+            sa_mask,
+            sa_flags: 0,
+            sa_restorer: None,
+        };
+        if libc::sigaction(SIGTIMEOUT.0, &sa, std::ptr::null_mut()) != 0 {
+            return Err(io::Error::last_os_error());
+        }
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+// The first time we unblock SIGTIMEOUT should cause approprate initialization:
+static SETUP_TIMEOUT_HANDLER: std::sync::Once = std::sync::Once::new();
+
+/// Setup our timeout-signal workflow. This establishes the signal handler for
+/// our `SIGTIMEOUT` and should be called once during initialization.
+#[inline]
+pub fn setup_timeout_handler() -> io::Result<()> {
+    SETUP_TIMEOUT_HANDLER.call_once(|| {
+        // We unwrap here.
+        // If setting up this handler fails you have other problems already,
+        // plus, if setting up fails you can't *use* it either, so everything
+        // goes to die.
+        do_setup_timeout_handler().unwrap();
+    });
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+/// This guards the state of the timeout signal: We want it blocked usually.
+pub struct TimeoutBlockGuard(bool);
+impl Drop for TimeoutBlockGuard {
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        if self.0 {
+            block_timeout_signal();
+        } else {
+            unblock_timeout_signal().forget();
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl TimeoutBlockGuard {
+    /// Convenience helper to "forget" to restore the signal block mask.
+    #[inline(always)]
+    pub fn forget(self) {
+        std::mem::forget(self);
+    }
+
+    /// Convenience helper to trigger the guard behavior immediately.
+    #[inline(always)]
+    pub fn trigger(self) {
+        std::mem::drop(self); // be explicit here...
+    }
+}
+
+/// Unblock the timeout signal for the current thread. By default we block the
+/// signal this behavior should be restored when done using timeouts, therefor this
+/// returns a guard:
+#[inline(always)]
+pub fn unblock_timeout_signal() -> TimeoutBlockGuard {
+    // This calls std::sync::Once:
+    setup_timeout_handler();
+    //let mut set = nix::sys::signal::SigSet::empty();
+    //set.add(SIGTIMEOUT.0);
+    //set.thread_unblock()?;
+    //Ok(TimeoutBlockGuard{})
+    // Again, nix crate and its signal limitations...
+
+    // NOTE:
+    //   sigsetops(3) and pthread_sigmask(3) can only fail if invalid memory is
+    //   passed to the kernel, or signal numbers are "invalid", since we know
+    //   neither is the case we will panic on error...
+    let was_blocked = unsafe {
+        let mut mask: libc::sigset_t = mem::uninitialized();
+        let mut oldset: libc::sigset_t = mem::uninitialized();
+        if libc::sigemptyset(&mut mask) != 0
+           || libc::sigaddset(&mut mask, SIGTIMEOUT.0) != 0
+           || libc::pthread_sigmask(libc::SIG_UNBLOCK, &mask, &mut oldset) != 0
+        {
+            panic!("Impossibly failed to unblock SIGTIMEOUT");
+            //return Err(io::Error::last_os_error());
+        }
+
+        libc::sigismember(&oldset, SIGTIMEOUT.0) == 1
+    };
+    TimeoutBlockGuard(was_blocked)
+}
+
+/// Block the timeout signal for the current thread. This is the default.
+#[inline(always)]
+pub fn block_timeout_signal() {
+    //let mut set = nix::sys::signal::SigSet::empty();
+    //set.add(SIGTIMEOUT);
+    //set.thread_block()
+    unsafe {
+        let mut mask: libc::sigset_t = mem::uninitialized();
+        if libc::sigemptyset(&mut mask) != 0
+           || libc::sigaddset(&mut mask, SIGTIMEOUT.0) != 0
+           || libc::pthread_sigmask(libc::SIG_BLOCK, &mask,
+                                    std::ptr::null_mut()) != 0
+        {
+            panic!("Impossibly failed to block SIGTIMEOUT");
+            //return Err(io::Error::last_os_error());
+        }
+    }
+}