Re: Timeout on configure stage

[Joerg Sonnenberger <joerg%bec.de@localhost>]

On Sun, Nov 08, 2020 at 02:17:32AM +0100, Sijmen Mulder wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Still trying to get a full bulk build going on macOS/aarch64, I hit
> upon a hang in textproc/ja-groff. I found that one of its configure
> tests ('checking for working mmap...') hangs on a read() on this
> configuration.
> 
> Putting the specifics of that issue aside, it seems problematic to
> me that this locks up the entire bulk build. I suggest implementing
> a timeout on the configure stage of say, 10 minutes, to rule out
> this mode of breakage. Would that be ok?

I've been recommending bulk builds to use an appropiate CPU time limit
(ulimit -t) for years. What is appropiate depends a bit on the CPU, of
course, but 60min is a good starting point. It doesn't cover all cases
and the problematic cases are those where no good out-of-the-box
solution in Unix exists.

Joerg