Terminate action option not working
 

In the VBP project I have a step (RunProgram) which is launching some internal tool (an exe file).Time out for this step is set to 5 hrs (Terminate action if not completed after %UNIT_TESTS_TIMEOUT% seconds )
using macro UNIT_TESTS_TIMEOUT.However -the build process remains frozen as it does not go further than this step.I would expect after 5 hrs the step will be forced to close and move to next one (on other box it happened that way in the past).
I am using VBP 6.7a,box is a Virtual machine with OS =Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition.

Testing with VBP 6.7a on Win 2003 SP2, the attached sample terminates the Run Program step after 5 hours and completes the rest of the build.

12/17/2008 6:57:03 AM: --------------------Starting Build: 'terminate.bld'--------------------
12/17/2008 6:57:03 AM: Building project step 'Project steps'...
12/17/2008 6:57:03 AM: Building project step 'Run Program'...
Action terminated
12/17/2008 11:57:03 AM: Step 'Run Program' failed
12/17/2008 11:57:03 AM: Building project step 'Log Message'...
done
12/17/2008 11:57:03 AM: Build successfully completed.

tested on that box -it is ok.
But now I think the VB process itself would freeze sometimes as it happened that at different steps (for example running a VBscript step)the build simply does not do anything ,does not write in the log ,does not advance ,nothing
The steps where the issue appear are random.
And about the step where I have timeout of 5 hrs -every time is the same ,the step is not terminated after 5 hrs ,it remains hanging.
The box where these issues appear is a virtual machine -can be this a cause?
On my normal machine nothing like this happens.
But I need to understand what is causing these issues on virtual machine and how to fix it.

We tested in a virtual machine too (Virtual PC 2007) and also regularly perform builds in VMware and Virtual PC VMs and haven't encountered any problems. Which virtual machine software (and version/SP) are you using?
http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthre...?threadid=3892

sorry for late response ,was not at work for long time.We are using VMWare 3.5.0 build 110271 .I will try all the solutions suggested at the link you provided and if still not ok I will come back with a post

I have done these changes in Sch Task launching the build:
-Added the /mta switch
-using the console app (VisBuildCmd.exe) instead of the GUI app.
Result :the build finally passed the UT step!actually it is first time when it passed
Problem :build freezed at some further step -a simple Send Mail step but in message section has:
[vbld_EscapeString(vbld_FSO.OpenTextFile("%CURRENT_UT_EMAIL_OUTPUT_FOLDER%\index.html", , , True).ReadAll)]

On a normal machine -never had any freezing issue .
Log looks like:
15/01/2009 6:53:01 AM: Building project step 'Send tests result email'...
15/01/2009 6:53:01 AM: Building project step 'Send tests result email-UT Tool launched succesfully'...

and nothing after this

Now I am trying one more thing ,I have added
a Run Script (VBScript) step at the start of the project with code of:
Application.Options.RunProgramOutputWaitTimeout = 1000
Application.Options.RunProgramInputWaitTimeout = 1000

to see if it helps.

No improvement ,build freezes at Send email step.Any advice ?

Maybe try removing

[vbld_EscapeString(vbld_FSO.OpenTextFile("%CURRENT_UT_EMAIL_OUTPUT_FOLDER%\index.html", , , True).ReadAll)]

from the Send Mail step and instead attach the file %CURRENT_UT_EMAIL_OUTPUT_FOLDER%\index.html (to eliminate the script expression).

You might also try recreating the build machine from scratch.

Otherwise we would need more details to try to reproduce the problem here.
http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthre...?threadid=3044

I tried to remove the script expression and use the attachment -the same problem appeared
I tried to completely elliminate this step but then the build frozen at another step where I am writing into some xml file using a 'Write XML 'step .As I want to avoid the reinstall of build box (except of these issues everything is ok)I will send the required details to your support email address.

After last discussions -I reinstalled OS on this machine from the scratch.
It was relatively ok for long time -build remained frozen quite rarely at a step where C# solution was compiled in a Make VS.Net step -but 3 weeks ago started to be quite bad as i cannot have any build finished on this machine.
All the builds remain now frozen either at the "Make VS.Net" step (last line in log is "Pre-processing...") or at a "Zip Files" step (last line in log is "C:\SrcFolder\Release -> C:\TrgFolder\Release.zip")
I updated VisBuild to latest version 7.7a but no change ,builds are still freezing.
Any idea what to do next to fix this issue?

Rebuild the machine?

well-this might help :-)
But apart fromm such a radical solution applied again -is there any way to understand what is causing VisBuild to freeze at every build ?

We would need more details to be able to reproduce the problem here, ideally a VM image that consistently reproduces the problem.