#10840: Periodic alarm signals can cause a retry loop to get stuck -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- Reporter: Rufflewind | Owner: Type: bug | Status: new Priority: normal | Milestone: Component: Compiler | Version: 7.10.2 Keywords: | Operating System: Unknown/Multiple Architecture: | Type of failure: None/Unknown Unknown/Multiple | Test Case: | Blocked By: Blocking: | Related Tickets: Differential Revisions: | -------------------------------------+------------------------------------- The [https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Commentary/Rts/Signals periodic alarm signals emitted by the GHC RTS] can [https://github.com/haskell/directory/issues/35 hang the program under certain circumstances]. In particular, any retry-loop of the form {{{#!c while (interruptible_syscall() == FAILED && errno == EINTR); }}} can cause a hang if the syscall takes a long time and cannot be resumed, as it will forced to restart from the beginning each time it gets interrupted. If the syscall takes longer than the interval between successive alarm signals, it will be stuck in this loop forever. This was found to occur with `statfs64` (indirectly called by `realpath`) and `open` on SSHFS on Mac OS X. [https://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/ghc-devs/2015-September/009770.html Using a safe foreign import seems to mitigate the issue], but [https://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/ghc-devs/2015-September/009793.html according to Simon Marlow this is probably an accident]. So far there seems to be no way to guarantee the suspension of signals except through low-level tools like `pthread_setmask`. -- Ticket URL: http://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/10840 GHC http://www.haskell.org/ghc/ The Glasgow Haskell Compiler