How to force an Emacs tramp time out?

Question

I use TRAMP a lot with emacs. However, sometimes a server goes down and tramp sits waiting for a timeout. Usually it's after doing a C-x-f in ido-mode to open a new file. I have to wait an annoyingly long amount of time. Is there an easy way to tell TRAMP to timeout and let ido-mode continue. I try C-g and the option to open a file never happens.

Whether `C-g` works in this situation may depend on your operating system (and on some “exotic” (i.e. non-unix), platforms, how Emacs was compiled, and perhaps even how the ssh or other helper program was compiled). — Gilles 'SO- stop being evil', Dec 07 '10 at 22:17

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 17 '13 at 19:56

2

In thoses (frequent) cases when tramp stalls, I just halt the process with C-g, kill the tramp buffer and I can then save the file.

M-x kill-buffer RET *tramp.*

answered Sep 17 '13 at 19:56

yPhil

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Indeed; killing the tramp buffer for the relevant connection is a useful general approach to fixing tramp issues. (I'm not sure it's the best solution to something which is happening really frequently, but it's certainly a good one to keep in mind.) – phils Sep 17 '13 at 22:39
When I say frequently, what I really mean is that when I return to edit a tramp-opened file after say, more than an hour (witch is not that frequent) I'm pretty sure that tramp is deep asleep. Ever since I discovered that C-g & killing the tramp buffer works, my relationship with emacs has improved. What prevented you to upvote my answer BTW ? – yPhil Sep 18 '13 at 10:54
I didn't upvote because it didn't seem directly relevant to the question -- killing the tramp buffer can be very useful, but it can't bring a remote server back to life. – phils Sep 18 '13 at 11:19

vpit3833 · Answer 2 · 2010-12-06T23:14:44.577

0

I don't face such timeout situation though I frequently use TRAMP. Try something like

(defun tramp-find-file-timeout ()
  (when tramp
    (with-timeout (4)
      (keyboard-quit))))
(add-hook 'find-file-hook 'tramp-find-file-timeout)

I used this and this to make this suggestion. something better than keyboard-quit could work for you.

edited Dec 06 '10 at 23:14

answered Dec 06 '10 at 22:26

vpit3833

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Oh, this looks like it would work, but it fails for some reason. Bummer! – User1 Dec 07 '10 at 16:24

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 07 '10 at 16:27

I found one hint that can limit the painful wait to 5 seconds. Add this line to .ssh/config:

Host *
     ServerAliveInterval 5

However, after five seconds, you still can't choose a file. So, when it fails just do a C-x b to a buffer that's not opened on the downed server and C-x-f from there will not take forever.

How to force an Emacs tramp time out?

3 Answers3

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