Preventing scripts blocking Amarok - any taker?

[Mark Kretschmann]

On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 2:17 PM, Bart Cerneels <bart.cerneels at kde.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 13:59, Mark Kretschmann <kretschmann at kde.org> wrote:
>> On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 12:22 PM, Myriam Schweingruber <myriam at kde.org> wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> it happens sometimes that a 3rd-party script is running wild and
>>> blocks Amarok. Mark already started to write a mockup checking if a
>>> script takes too long that should suggest killing it when it stalls.
>>> The string already is prepared here:
>>>
>>> src/dialogs/ScriptManager.cpp line 609
>>>
>>> //MOCKUP method, see API docs
>>> void
>>> ScriptManager::showScriptStalledDialog()  // SLOT
>>> {
>>>    const QString script = "FIXME";
>>>
>>>    const int reply = KMessageBox::questionYesNo( 0, i18n( "The script
>>> '%1' appears to have stalled.\n\n"
>>>                                                           "Would you
>>> like to stop it?", script ),
>>>                                                           i18n(
>>> "Script Manager - Amarok" ),
>>>
>>> KStandardGuiItem::yes(),
>>>
>>> KStandardGuiItem::no(),
>>>                                                           QString(),
>>>
>>> KMessageBox::Dangerous );
>>>    Q_UNUSED(reply)
>>> }
>>>
>>>
>>> Mark being very busy at the moment with his day job it would be nice
>>> if somebody could give this the final push. The string is already in,
>>> so this would not cause a string change and can still be committed for
>>> 2.4
>>
>> My original idea for solving this was the following:
>>
>> We start a "watchdog" thread that checks regularly if the GUI blocks.
>> I'm not quite sure how to check this, but it should be possible. And
>> if we detect that it is blocking in a script, we kill that script.
>>
>> I dunno if the idea is too simplistic, or if it might work. But the
>> "watchdog" thread is probably needed, I guess.
>
> Have the mainloop update a counter. If counter == counter_previous:
> warning dialog.

Right, that could work.

More difficult: Actually "killing" the script. They are running in-process...

-- 
Mark Kretschmann
Amarok Developer, Software Engineer at KO GmbH
Fellow of the Free Software Foundation Europe
http://amarok.kde.org - http://fsfe.org - http://kogmbh.com