RFC: Fix testsuite timeout clobbers

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 07:59:50AM +0400, Joel Brobecker wrote:
> Independently of that, do we want to try a different approache where
> the timeout gets reset more systematically? For instance, I can propose:
> everytime gdb_start is called, reset the timeout to the default value
> (which itself should be configurable - through a site.exp or board file?)

It sounds good - we'd have to audit everywhere that tests did set the
timeout, though, since if it ends up before gdb_start or there are
multiple calls to gdb_start, it'd get reset.  Does DejaGNU give us
a per-start-of-exp-file hook?

Meanwhile, I'll check this patch in now.

> On the same topic (timeouts), I ran the testsuite on sparc-solaris,
> yesterday, and some tests were badly timing out, and each timeout
> was taking what it felt like hours (the testsuite itself took more
> than 2 hours, and that's after I justed killed -9 the inferiors from
> the tests).  With AdaCore's testsuite, a timeout means we've lost sync
> with debugger anyway - is there really an advantage to continuing a
> testcase when we get a timeout? Wouldn't it just as effective to abort
> the testcase after the first timeout?

IMO this is an excellent idea.  I wonder if we shouldn't resurrect
(but, working this time!) the suppression mechanism?

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery