def settimeout(self, timeout):
self.timeout = timeout<EOL>
Set a timeout on blocking read/write operations.  The ``timeout``
argument can be a nonnegative float expressing seconds, or ``None``.
If a float is given, subsequent channel read/write operations will
raise a timeout exception if the timeout period value has elapsed
before the operation has completed.  Setting a timeout of ``None``
disables timeouts on socket operations.

``chan.settimeout(0.0)`` is equivalent to ``chan.setblocking(0)``;
``chan.settimeout(None)`` is equivalent to ``chan.setblocking(1)``.

:param float timeout:
    seconds to wait for a pending read/write operation before raising
    ``socket.timeout``, or ``None`` for no timeout.