[rancid] Re: FreeBSD 7.0 + Expect 5.43.0 -- Do I need to patch expect?

[john heasley]

I have no idea what the problem is.  I expect it'l require a mix of
ktrace, gcore/gdb, and tcpdump to figure out what is causing tcl/expect
to hang.

Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 11:25:29AM -0800, Eric Cables:
> Are there any debugging options available to try and isolate the root cause
> of the problem?  I could probably write up a shell script that finds hung
> processes and kills them, but that's certainly not the best option. :-)
> 
> --
> Eric Cables
> 
> 
> On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 11:18 AM, john heasley <heas at shrubbery.net> wrote:
> 
> > Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 10:33:16AM -0800, Eric Cables:
> > > I've been running into this problem quite frequently, about once a week
> > or
> > > so rancid will hang for no apparent reason, and until I kill the process
> > it
> > > will remain hung.  I've read in the archives that Linux & Solaris have a
> > > problem with expect that requires a patch, but does this also include
> > > FreeBSD?
> >
> > Yes, some combinations of recent tcl / expect seem to have trouble on fbsd.
> > I'm not sure why, but the expect was pulled from distribution site for
> > defects.  the problem is that rolling back (via ports) seems to resurrect
> > an old problem which itself had been correct in ports by rolling back,
> > IIRC.
> >
> > I do not use freebsd and haven't had time to debug the problem.  ports is,
> > imho, too anxious to move forward with new tcl/expect versions and both are
> > too delicate for that.
> >