From @bulk88

Created by @bulk88

On Win32 re/subst.t and other subst*.t tests take 300
seconds while their watchdog process times out every time. The reason is
because the kill() in the END block in the .t file is on cmd.exe's PID,
not the
watchdog perl's PID, killing the cmd.exe leaves watchdog perl process
around, which blocks harness script until the timeout at as high as 300
seconds expires, why harness blocks on the watchdog proc IDK. Probably
something to do with inherited stdio handles or open3() handles but I',
not good at debugging stdio.

Here is the problematic code from test.pl
--------------------------------------------------------
# On Windows and VMS, try launching a watchdog process
# using system(1, ...) (see perlport.pod)
if ($is_mswin || $is_vms) {
# On Windows, try to get the 'real' PID
if ($is_mswin) {
eval { require Win32; };
if (defined(&Win32::GetCurrentProcessId)) {
$pid_to_kill = Win32::GetCurrentProcessId();
}
}

# If we still have a fake PID, we can't use this method at all
return if ($pid_to_kill <= 0);

# Launch watchdog process
my $watchdog;
eval {
local $SIG{'__WARN__'} = sub {
_diag("Watchdog warning: $_[0]");
};
my $sig = $is_vms ? 'TERM' : 'KILL';
my $cmd = _create_runperl( prog => "sleep($timeout);" .
"warn qq/#
$timeout_msg" . '\n/;' .
"kill($sig,
$pid_to_kill);");
$watchdog = system(1, $cmd);
};
if ($@ || ($watchdog <= 0)) {
_diag('Failed to start watchdog');
_diag($@) if $@;
undef($watchdog);
return;
}

# Add END block to parent to terminate and
# clean up watchdog process
eval "END { local \$! = 0; local \$? = 0;
wait() if kill('KILL', $watchdog); };";
return;
}
---------------------------------------------------

The problem is, the system() above, $watchdog contains a PID for
cmd.exe, not perl.exe which is a child process of that cmd.exe
TonyC brought up the question of why system() made a cmd.exe
process when perl is not a shell builtin and should have been directly
launched by the parent perl process (a perl that called watchdog()).

1st solution the above issue is being worked out in
https://rt-archive.perl.org/perl5/Ticket/Display.html?id=121283. Fixing that, will
cause this ticket to be fixed. I predict 121283 will take very long to
work out. Not for 5.20.

2nd solution is to a process group kill [on Win32] the watchdog, the
cmd.exe goes away, and the perl.exe underneath it goes away, broken in
5.17.2 until blead, still not commited, but patches are waiting in RT.
https://rt-archive.perl.org/perl5/Ticket/Display.html?id=121230 then change

wait() if kill('KILL', $watchdog); };";

wait() if kill('-KILL', $watchdog); };";
in test.pl.

3rd solution is to not kill the process with perl's kill(), but call a
cmd line tool like "taskkill" on WinXP and not included with OS but an
extra free download from microsoft called "pskill" which will do the
process tree kill that perl can't currently do until those patches in
https://rt-archive.perl.org/perl5/Ticket/Display.html?id=121230 are commit.

Perl Info


Flags:
category=core
severity=high

Site configuration information for perl 5.19.9:

Configured by Owner at Wed Feb 12 06:47:30 2014.

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 19 subversion 9) configuration:
Derived from: 633f0fd2ca244ca83cc99b3af3a7d3ac2931850b
Platform:
osname=MSWin32, osvers=5.1, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
uname=''
config_args='undef'
hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=undef
useithreads=define, usemultiplicity=define
use64bitint=undef, use64bitall=undef, uselongdouble=undef
usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
Compiler:
cc='cl', ccflags ='-nologo -GF -W3 -Od -MD -Zi -DDEBUGGING -DWIN32
-D_CONSOLE -DNO_STRICT -DPERL_TEXTMODE_SCRIPTS
-DPERL_HASH_FUNC_ONE_AT_A_TIME -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT
-DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS -DUSE_PERLIO -D_USE_32BIT_TIME_T',
optimize='-Od -MD -Zi -DDEBUGGING',
cppflags='-DWIN32'
ccversion='13.10.6030', gccversion='', gccosandvers=''
intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
d_longlong=undef, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=8
ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='__int64',
lseeksize=8
alignbytes=8, prototype=define
Linker and Libraries:
ld='link', ldflags ='-nologo -nodefaultlib -debug
-libpath:"c:\perl519\lib\CORE" -machine:x86'
libpth="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\VC7\lib"
libs=oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib
comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib
netapi32.lib uuid.lib ws2_32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib version.lib
odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib comctl32.lib msvcrt.lib
perllibs=oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib
comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib
netapi32.lib uuid.lib ws2_32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib version.lib
odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib comctl32.lib msvcrt.lib
libc=msvcrt.lib, so=dll, useshrplib=true, libperl=perl519.lib
gnulibc_version=''
Dynamic Linking:
dlsrc=dl_win32.xs, dlext=dll, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
cccdlflags=' ', lddlflags='-dll -nologo -nodefaultlib -debug
-libpath:"c:\perl519\lib\CORE" -machine:x86'

Locally applied patches:
uncommitted-changes


@INC for perl 5.19.9:
C:/perl519/site/lib
C:/perl519/lib
.


Environment for perl 5.19.9:
HOME (unset)
LANG (unset)
LANGUAGE (unset)
LD_LIBRARY_PATH (unset)
LOGDIR (unset)
PATH=C:\perl519\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
2003\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
2003\VC7\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
2003\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
2003\Common7\Tools\bin\prerelease;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem;
PERL_BADLANG (unset)
SHELL (unset)

test.pl's watchdog() always times out and blocks harness while it is timing out on Win32 #13647

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