(PECL gearman >= 0.6.0)
GearmanWorker::setTimeout — Set socket I/O activity timeout
$timeout
   )Sets the interval of time to wait for socket I/O activity.
timeoutAn interval of time in milliseconds. A negative value indicates an infinite timeout.
   Always returns TRUE.
  
Example #1 A simple worker with a 5 second timeout
<?php
echo "Starting\n";
# Create our worker object.
$gmworker= new GearmanWorker();
# Add default server (localhost).
$gmworker->addServer();
# Register function "reverse" with the server.
$gmworker->addFunction("reverse", "reverse_fn");
# Set the timeout to 5 seconds
$gmworker->setTimeout(5000);
echo "Waiting for job...\n";
while(@$gmworker->work() || $gmworker->returnCode() == GEARMAN_TIMEOUT)
{
  if ($gmworker->returnCode() == GEARMAN_TIMEOUT)
  {
    # Normally one would want to do something useful here ...
    echo "Timeout. Waiting for next job...\n";
    continue;
  }
  if ($gmworker->returnCode() != GEARMAN_SUCCESS)
  {
    echo "return_code: " . $gmworker->returnCode() . "\n";
    break;
  }
}
echo "Done\n";
function reverse_fn($job)
{
  return strrev($job->workload());
}
?>
Running the worker with no submitted jobs will generate output that looks like the following:
Starting Waiting for job... Timeout. Waiting for next job... Timeout. Waiting for next job... Timeout. Waiting for next job...