What does "Execution timeout is: $test_timeout" mean?

[Jonathan Wakely]

Hi,

When running the GCC testsuite I see this line printed in the log for
every test:

Execution timeout is: 300

However, this isn't true. The GCC testsuite uses $tool_timeout as the
timeout for both compiling and running tests. What is that line in the
log telling me?

It's printed by unix_load in config/unix.exp, as added by this patch:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/dejagnu/2015-11/msg00008.html

If I set test_timeout in ~/.dejagnurc or site.exp then I do indeed see
the value change. But it doesn't do anything. I can set test_timeout
to 2 second, and tests that sleep for 20 seconds or more will still
PASS and not timeout (as long as $tool_timeout is large enough).

The docs added by that patch say that $test_timeout is "the amount of
time (in seconds) to wait for a remote test to complete" which doesn't
match my observations. Is it because I'm testing locally, not
remotely? If that value only affects remote tests, why does DejaGnu
print "Execution timeout is: $test_timeout" to the logs
unconditionally? It's unhelpful (i.e. downright confusing) to log it
if it's not actually relevant.

DejaGnu *does* know about the "real" timeout, because the remote_exec
proc in remote.exp has already handled it and logged it via this
command:

    verbose -log "Executing on $hostname: $program $pargs $inp $outp (timeout = 
$timeout)" 2

I see that in my logs, and the $timeout value is the one I've set via
$tool_timeout and actually works. If I set that to a low value, my
tests timeout and FAIL. That timeout is the total time for both
compiling and running the test.

When I use -v -v -v with dejagnu-1.6.1 and set GCC's tool_timeout=30
and test_timeout=2 I see the output in the attached extract from the
log. The lines beginning with ================ are printed by the test
itself, showing it sleeps for 20 seconds. Despite DejaGnu telling me
the execution timeout is 2, the test passes. Either the execution
timeout is not used, or the timeout is not working.

Could unix.exp stop logging that line unconditionally if it's not
true?

Is it supposed to be true? Is the timeout failing to fire? Is it not
relevant for local tests?

I'm very confused.