[Prebuilds] Increase timeout and/or make it configurable

[mikenikles]

The current prebuild timeout is set to 1h. I'm working with some large projects that require more time to compile everything, up to 3 hours given current estimates.

Related to this, it would be a good user experience to allow a configurable timeout per project.

[gtsiolis]

FYI, This is also cross-linked[1] in the docs. 🎗️

[Trott]

If it's useful info, I just built Node.js on a Gitpod workspace and it took 83 minutes. So, uh, being able to set it to around 90 minutes or so would let me do Node.js prebuilds, which would be incredibly useful to me.

[tobiasdiez]

Is there a ETA for when the build times is increased? For https://github.com/sagemath/sage we are currently also above the 1h mark.

[georg480]

My prebuild is aborted after one hour, is there a parameter with which I can change the time? The option (Incremental Prebuilds
Enable Incremental Prebuilds Beta) for is also active.

[Trott]

is there a parameter with which I can change the time?

As far as I know, the answer is still "no" but I want to share a workaround I've done that has helped me out a lot.

Here's the GitPod YAML config for one of my projects:

tasks:
  - init: ./configure && timeout 45m make -j16 || true

The timeout 45m make -j16 || true cause make -j16 to run for 45 minutes. After that, it is terminated but the || true causes a success status code to be provided rather than a failure status code. Since my builds take more than an hour, but usually less than an hour and 15 minutes, that gives me a very big head start on my builds when I open the workspace. This depends on having a build step that can pick up where it left off rather than needing to start over.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[tobiasdiez]

Prebuild still timeout after 1h.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[rober-m]

Please, add configurable timeout for projects that take longer than 1h! 🙏