vm module timeout option not working in main process

[Prinzhorn]

Preflight Checklist

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
• I have searched the issue tracker for an issue that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Issue Details

• Electron Version: v11.0.1
• Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04
• Last Known Working Electron version: None, I tried 6 through 11

I must assume this is a known issue, since the tests are disabled

electron/script/node-disabled-tests.json

Line 151 in e017d87

"parallel/test-vm-timeout",

but I haven't found a mention in the issues. I also cannot find a list of differences between Electron and Node.js. Maybe this would be a great addition? E.g. the use of BoringSSL and all other things that are known to be different and potentially breaking when relying on Node.js compatibility. E.g. similar to this https://www.electronjs.org/docs/development/electron-vs-nwjs but "Differences between Node.js and Electron's Node.js fork".

Anyway, this is about the vm module:

Expected Behavior

I expect runInNewContexts timeout option of the vm module to be respected.

Actual Behavior

It never times out.

To Reproduce

console.log('runnin');

try {
  require('vm').runInNewContext('while (true);', {}, { timeout: 1 });
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err);
}

console.log('stoppin');

Electron:

$ npx electron@11 index.js
runnin
# Blocks forever

Node.js:

$ node index.js 
runnin
vm.js:131
      return super.runInContext(contextifiedObject, ...args);
                   ^

Error: Script execution timed out after 1ms
    at Script.runInContext (vm.js:131:20)
    at doWithTimeout (/home/alex/Projects/Bandsalat/src/issues/vm2-timeout/node_modules/vm2/lib/main.js:467:17)
    at VM.run (/home/alex/Projects/Bandsalat/src/issues/vm2-timeout/node_modules/vm2/lib/main.js:849:10)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/alex/Projects/Bandsalat/src/issues/vm2-timeout/index.js:5:24)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1156:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1176:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1000:32)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:899:14)
    at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (internal/modules/run_main.js:74:12)
    at internal/main/run_main_module.js:18:47 {
  code: 'ERR_SCRIPT_EXECUTION_TIMEOUT'
}

Additional Information

Originally reported to the vm2 module patriksimek/vm2#307
The comments might help tracing this down patriksimek/vm2#307 (comment)

This is explicitly about the main process. I don't care about vm being removed from the renderer #26087

[Prinzhorn]

Turns out it does work in a Worker Thread

const { Worker, isMainThread } = require('worker_threads');

if (isMainThread) {
  console.log('spawnin');
  new Worker(__filename);
} else {
  console.log('runnin');

  try {
    require('vm').runInNewContext('while (true);', {}, { timeout: 1 });
  } catch (err) {
    console.error(err);
  }

  console.log('stoppin');
}

 $ npx electron@11 worker.js
spawnin
runnin
Error: Script execution timed out after 1ms
    at Script.runInContext (vm.js:130:18)
    at Script.runInNewContext (vm.js:135:17)
    at Object.runInNewContext (vm.js:302:38)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/alex/Projects/Bandsalat/src/issues/vm2-timeout/worker.js:10:19)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1152:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:1173:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:992:32)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:885:14)
    at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (internal/modules/run_main.js:71:12)
    at MessagePort.<anonymous> (internal/main/worker_thread.js:162:24) {
  code: 'ERR_SCRIPT_EXECUTION_TIMEOUT'
}
stoppin

I'm doing everything in a worker thread far away from the main process anyway. It's still a bug that the timeout does not work directly in the main process, but it doesn't concern me anymore.

[ckerr]

Thanks for reporting this and for including a testcase!

Also, I like the idea of a "known differences" document but it's off-topic for this ticket. Could you file a separate ticket for that so that it can be tracked separately?

I must assume this is a known issue, since the tests are disabled

Looks like this test has been disabled since we first started running Node.js's test suite in our CI back in 1d06f67. At that time about 10% of the tests were failing. So this is a known issue in the sense that it's on the exclude list; but since it was one out of hundreds, I don't know if this one has had any specific discussion.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale. If this issue is still affecting you, please leave any comment (for example, "bump"), and we'll keep it open. If you have any new additional information—in particular, if this is still reproducible in the latest version of Electron or in the beta—please include it with your comment!

[Prinzhorn]

Turns out npx electron@11.0.0 index.js doesn't work but npx electron@11.5.0 index.js does (I didn't bisect the versions any further). So it turns out this has been fixed looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong ago, but this issue wasn't cross referenced.

The vm-timeout test was re-added here 5e1fbc9#diff-92a1788fffc3fc1f46ede1243c9ba69c6043c09f29bca54aa145b389836c7ff1L144

I don't know when exactly this was fixed, but 🥳