diff --git a/swh/loader/mercurial/hgutil.py b/swh/loader/mercurial/hgutil.py
--- a/swh/loader/mercurial/hgutil.py
+++ b/swh/loader/mercurial/hgutil.py
@@ -5,19 +5,15 @@
 
 from collections import defaultdict
 from dataclasses import dataclass
-import io
-import os
-import signal
-import time
-import traceback
+from functools import partial
 from typing import Dict, List, Mapping, NewType, Optional, Set
 
-from billiard import Process, Queue
-
 # The internal Mercurial API is not guaranteed to be stable.
 from mercurial import bookmarks, context, error, hg, smartset, util  # type: ignore
 import mercurial.ui  # type: ignore
 
+from swh.loader.core.utils import clone_with_timeout
+
 NULLID = mercurial.node.nullid
 HgNodeId = NewType("HgNodeId", bytes)
 Repository = hg.localrepo
@@ -116,64 +112,13 @@
     )
 
 
-class CloneTimeout(Exception):
-    pass
-
-
-class CloneFailure(Exception):
-    pass
-
-
-def _clone_task(src: str, dest: str, errors: Queue) -> None:
-    """Clone task to run in a subprocess.
-
-    Args:
-        src: clone source
-        dest: clone destination
-        errors: message queue to communicate errors
-    """
-    try:
-        hg.clone(
-            ui=mercurial.ui.ui.load(),
-            peeropts={},
-            source=src.encode(),
-            dest=dest.encode(),
-            update=False,
-        )
-    except Exception as e:
-        exc_buffer = io.StringIO()
-        traceback.print_exc(file=exc_buffer)
-        errors.put_nowait(exc_buffer.getvalue())
-        raise e
-
-
-def clone(src: str, dest: str, timeout: float) -> None:
-    """Clone a repository with timeout.
-
-    Args:
-        src: clone source
-        dest: clone destination
-        timeout: timeout in seconds
-    """
-    errors: Queue = Queue()
-    process = Process(target=_clone_task, args=(src, dest, errors))
-    process.start()
-    process.join(timeout)
-
-    if process.is_alive():
-        process.terminate()
-        # Give it literally a second (in successive steps of 0.1 second), then kill it.
-        # Can't use `process.join(1)` here, billiard appears to be bugged
-        # https://github.com/celery/billiard/issues/270
-        killed = False
-        for _ in range(10):
-            time.sleep(0.1)
-            if not process.is_alive():
-                break
-        else:
-            killed = True
-            os.kill(process.pid, signal.SIGKILL)
-        raise CloneTimeout(src, timeout, killed)
-
-    if not errors.empty():
-        raise CloneFailure(src, dest, errors.get())
+def clone(src: str, dest: str, timeout: float):
+    closure = partial(
+        hg.clone,
+        ui=mercurial.ui.ui.load(),
+        peeropts={},
+        source=src.encode(),
+        dest=dest.encode(),
+        update=False,
+    )
+    clone_with_timeout(src, dest, closure, timeout)