method timeouts vs systemd activation and slow systems

[Lennart Poettering]

eOn Do, 02.03.23 10:15, Colin Walters (walters at verbum.org) wrote:

> - Fix client libraries to query the daemon for the timeout (or parse
>   the configs on their own? not sure)

That kinda creates a conceptual cyclic dep, no? to query the default
timeout you issue a method call, thus you need to query the default
timeout, which you issue a method call for, thus you need to query the
default timeout, which you isue a method call for, thus you ne…

This isn't hard to break of course, but suggests to me that maybe this
is a parameter that should be agreed on before the usual dbus message
chatter begins, i.e. maybe as part of the auth protocol? similar to
the agreement on the unix-fd support, maybe client and server could
exchange other parameters, such as he default method call timeout.

This also has the benefit thta it is easier to pipeline, as full
roundtrips are nasty nasty business.

That all said, I don't see anyone volunteering to do the work to
extend the protocol for this. Or are you volunteering?

I see your problem though, and it is kinda broken that the activation
timeout is longer than the method call timeout. Hence I am kinda
tempted to just bump the default method call timeout in
sd-bus. That'll fix a lot of low-level software, but of course not
stuff relying on libdbus or glib's logic.

Lennart

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Lennart Poettering, Berlin