The Akka documentation states that setReceiveTimeout is
"A timeout mechanism can be used to receive a message when no initial message is received within a certain time."
I was unsure about the "initial message" part and turns out that the underlying actor receives a timeout every time there hasn't been a message within the specified timeframe i.e. not just when no initial message has been received.
Small code sample to show the behaviour of setReceiveTimeout:
Output:
Sun May 27 13:23:57 EST 2012 / Started
Sun May 27 13:24:02 EST 2012 / No message received since 5 seconds
Sun May 27 13:24:07 EST 2012 / No message received since 5 seconds
Sun May 27 13:24:12 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 1
Sun May 27 13:24:13 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 2
Sun May 27 13:24:14 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 3
Sun May 27 13:24:15 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 4
Sun May 27 13:24:16 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 5
Sun May 27 13:24:17 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 6
Sun May 27 13:24:18 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 7
Sun May 27 13:24:19 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 8
Sun May 27 13:24:20 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 9
Sun May 27 13:24:21 EST 2012 / Recieved: Message: 10
Sun May 27 13:24:26 EST 2012 / No message received since 5 seconds
Sun May 27 13:24:31 EST 2012 / No message received since 5 seconds
