using namespace boost::asio;
using namespace boost::system;
using boost::optional;
 
ip::tcp::socket _socket; // it could be another kind of socket, not only ip::tcp
 
/** 
 * Dumb function to be used as handler argument and save the error_code
 * into a pointer
 *
 * e.g.: boost::bind( &set_result, some_pointer, _1 )
 */
void set_result( optional<error_code>* a, error_code b ) 
{
  a->reset( b );
}
 
#define TIMEOUT 60
/**
 * it uses _socket 
 * if timeout happends throw a system_error exception
 */
template<typename MutableBufferSequence>
optional<error_code> read_with_timeout(
    const MutableBufferSequence& buffer
  ) throw( system_error )
{
  optional<error_code> timer_result;
  optional<error_code> read_result;
 
  deadline_timer timer( _socket.io_service() );
 
  timer.expires_from_now( seconds(TIMEOUT) );
  timer.async_wait( boost::bind(&set_result, &timer_result, _1) );
 
  boost::asio::async_read(
      _socket,
      buffer,
      boost::asio::transfer_at_least( buffer_size_helper(buffer) ),
      boost::bind( &set_result, &read_result, _1 )
    );
 
  _socket.io_service().reset();
 
  while ( _socket.io_service().run_one() )
  {
    if ( read_result )
    {
      timer.cancel();
    }
    else if ( timer_result )
    {
      _socket.cancel();
      throw system_error(
          error_code( errc::timed_out, get_generic_category() )            
        );
    }
  }
  return read_result;
}