Generating website fails if timeout is not increased - is this expected?

[herzbube]

I have a modest documentation site consisting of roughly 40 markdown and 100 image/movie files. Almost every markdown file has a table of contents, and there are many cross-references using the relref shortcode. If you want to inspect the content files, then you can find them here: https://github.com/herzbube/littlego-usermanual/tree/main/littlego-usermanual

I have incrementally worked on the site over several weeks, always previewing my work with hugo server and sometimes making an actual site build, but never deleting the resources folder. Today it occurred to me to delete the resources folder before making a build. To my dismay the build suddenly failed with several messages indicating a potential "infinite recursion" problem. This was the actual output (paths obfuscated):

$ rm -rf resources public/online; hugo --config=config/online/hugo.toml --destination public/online
Start building sites … 
hugo v0.124.1-db083b05f16c945fec04f745f0ca8640560cf1ec+extended darwin/amd64 BuildDate=2024-03-20T11:40:10Z VendorInfo=brew

ERROR render of "taxonomy" failed: "/path/to/littlego-usermanual/themes/hugo-geekdoc/layouts/_default/baseof.html:40:15": execute of template failed: template: _default/terms.html:40:15: executing "_default/terms.html" at <partial "menu" .>: error calling partial: "/path/to/littlego-usermanual/themes/hugo-geekdoc/layouts/partials/menu.html:10:9": execute of template failed: template: partials/menu.html:10:9: executing "partials/menu.html" at <partial "menu-filetree" .>: error calling partial: partial "menu-filetree" timed out after 30s. This is most likely due to infinite recursion. If this is just a slow template, you can try to increase the 'timeout' config setting.
ERROR render of "page" failed: "/path/to/littlego-usermanual/themes/hugo-geekdoc/layouts/_default/baseof.html:40:15": execute of template failed: template: _default/single.html:40:15: executing "_default/single.html" at <partial "menu" .>: error calling partial: "/path/to/littlego-usermanual/themes/hugo-geekdoc/layouts/partials/menu.html:10:9": execute of template failed: template: partials/menu.html:10:9: executing "partials/menu.html" at <partial "menu-filetree" .>: error calling partial: partial "menu-filetree" timed out after 30s. This is most likely due to infinite recursion. If this is just a slow template, you can try to increase the 'timeout' config setting.
ERROR render of "section" failed: "/path/to/littlego-usermanual/themes/hugo-geekdoc/layouts/_default/baseof.html:40:15": execute of template failed: template: _default/list.html:40:15: executing "_default/list.html" at <partial "menu" .>: error calling partial: partial "menu" timed out after 30s. This is most likely due to infinite recursion. If this is just a slow template, you can try to increase the 'timeout' config setting.
ERROR render of "section" failed: "/path/to/littlego-usermanual/themes/hugo-geekdoc/layouts/_default/baseof.html:40:15": execute of template failed: template: _default/list.html:40:15: executing "_default/list.html" at <partial "menu" .>: error calling partial: "/path/to/littlego-usermanual/themes/hugo-geekdoc/layouts/partials/menu.html:10:9": execute of template failed: template: partials/menu.html:10:9: executing "partials/menu.html" at <partial "menu-filetree" .>: error calling partial: partial "menu-filetree" timed out after 30s. This is most likely due to infinite recursion. If this is just a slow template, you can try to increase the 'timeout' config setting.
Total in 71354 ms
Error: error building site: render: failed to render pages: render of "page" failed: "/path/to/littlego-usermanual/themes/hugo-geekdoc/layouts/_default/baseof.html:40:15": execute of template failed: template: _default/single.html:40:15: executing "_default/single.html" at <partial "menu" .>: error calling partial: "/path/to/littlego-usermanual/themes/hugo-geekdoc/layouts/partials/menu.html:10:9": execute of template failed: template: partials/menu.html:10:9: executing "partials/menu.html" at <partial "menu-filetree" .>: error calling partial: partial "menu-filetree" timed out after 30s. This is most likely due to infinite recursion. If this is just a slow template, you can try to increase the 'timeout' config setting.

Seeing that the build took 71354 ms, I added this line to hugo.toml:

timeout = '80s'

and re-ran the site build (again removing the resources folder first). This time the build worked without error.

So my question is: Is it expected that Hugo builds with the Geekdoc theme take such a long time? If not, then do you have any ideas what I could be doing wrong?

[xoxys]

I just tried to reproduce the issue with your repo but I get a lot of other build errorrs related to the content structure of your repo:

$ hugo --config=config/online/hugo.toml --destination public/online
Start building sites … 
hugo v0.115.2-8966424e0e521fb1627216a84efd2c5d5917cb0d linux/amd64 BuildDate=2023-07-08T17:06:56Z VendorInfo=gohugoio

ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../ui-basics/tab-bar": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/game-archive/index.md:13:213": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/diagnostics/troubleshooting/index.md:12:276": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../technical-pages/sgf": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/game-archive/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../playing-the-game/scoring": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/other-features/game-info-screen/index.md:30:216": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/diagnostics/troubleshooting/index.md:18:151": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/computer-player": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/diagnostics/troubleshooting/index.md:22:271": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-variations": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/other-features/game-info-screen/index.md:36:115": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/current-game-variation": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/other-features/game-info-screen/index.md:36:211": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/diagnostics/troubleshooting/index.md:32:60": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../playing-the-game/start-a-new-game": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/diagnostics/troubleshooting/index.md:38:187": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../ui-basics/tab-bar": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/appendix/faq/index.md:14:73": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/players": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/playing-the-game/end-of-the-game/index.md:14:298": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../ui-basics/play-menu": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/appendix/faq/index.md:15:67": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../playing-the-game/start-a-new-game": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/appendix/faq/index.md:16:62": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../ui-basics/play-toolbar": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/appendix/faq/index.md:24:13": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/players": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/playing-the-game/end-of-the-game/index.md:27:150": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../playing-the-game/how-to-play": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/appendix/faq/index.md:26:31": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../technical-pages/sgf": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/game-archive/index.md:64:35": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../playing-the-game/start-a-new-game": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/appendix/faq/index.md:30:29": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../technical-pages/sgf": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/game-archive/index.md:64:291": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/computer-player": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/appendix/faq/index.md:40:145": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/computer-player": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/appendix/faq/index.md:40:308": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../other-features/player-influence": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/appendix/faq/index.md:50:34": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/diagnostics/bug-reports/index.md:24:557": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/diagnostics/bug-reports/index.md:55:288": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/diagnostics/bug-reports/index.md:65:477": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/ui-basics/tab-bar/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/ui-basics/tab-bar/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../diagnostics": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/ui-basics/tab-bar/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../other-features/game-info-screen": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/ui-basics/play-toolbar/index.md:27:120": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../other-features/game-info-screen": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/ui-basics/play-toolbar/index.md:54:120": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/computer-player": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/other-features/player-influence/index.md:59:28": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../ui-basics/play-toolbar": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/playing-the-game/start-a-new-game/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../ui-basics/play-menu": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/playing-the-game/start-a-new-game/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../ui-basics/play-status-text": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/playing-the-game/how-to-play/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-editing/annotations": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/game-variations/index.md:148:133": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-editing/annotations": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/game-variations/index.md:148:220": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-editing/board-setup": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/game-variations/index.md:150:200": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/current-game-variation": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/other-features/game-board-extras/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/players": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/other-features/game-info-screen/index.md:56:250": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/computer-player": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/other-features/game-info-screen/index.md:56:456": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/players": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/playing-the-game/start-a-new-game/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../appendix/go-rules": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/playing-the-game/start-a-new-game/index.md:182:248": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-variations": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/other-features/game-info-screen/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/current-game-variation": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/other-features/game-info-screen/index.md:1:1": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../playing-the-game/how-to-play": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/current-game-variation/index.md:178:102": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../playing-the-game/how-to-play": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/current-game-variation/index.md:188:84": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../other-features/game-info-screen": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/current-game-variation/index.md:204:47": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../ui-basics/play-status-text": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/current-game-variation/index.md:206:142": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../playing-the-game/scoring": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/game-organization/current-game-variation/index.md:208:19": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../ui-basics/tab-bar": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/playing-the-game/how-to-play/index.md:55:99": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../settings/computer-player": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/playing-the-game/how-to-play/index.md:57:145": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/technical-pages/sgf/index.md:28:92": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/technical-pages/sgf/index.md:40:112": page not found
ERROR [en] REF_NOT_FOUND: Ref "../game-organization/game-archive": "~/.tmp/littlego-usermanual/littlego-usermanual/content/technical-pages/sgf/index.md:64:131": page not found
Total in 35106 ms
Error: error building site: logged 55 error(s)

[xoxys]

After fixing the refs locally, your side takes ~ 34915 ms (~30s) to build on my local system which looks okish to me.

[xoxys]

The slowness of the build with your project is caused by the usage of the img shortcode. This shortcode is using Hugos image processing feature to resize the images automatically. As you use a lot of images, it takes some time during the build (at least after deleting the cache directory).

[xoxys]

I've created #815 to address this issue, at least if size=origin is used.

[herzbube]

The slowness of the build with your project is caused by the usage of the img shortcode. This shortcode is using Hugos image processing feature to resize the images automatically. As you use a lot of images, it takes some time during the build (at least after deleting the cache directory).

Thanks a lot for debugging for me!

I'm wondering: How could I have found out about this myself? I tried out the option --debug (or --logLevel=debug), but the resulting output isn't really helpful - this is the only output I get:

INFO  build:  step render substep pages site en outputFormat html duration 1m13.641729895s

In any case, thanks to your input I now understand why my generated output is so much larger (123 MB) than my content folder (20 MB). For instance, Hugo generates a 26 MB GIF from my original 828 KB file 😖

---

I just tried to reproduce the issue with your repo but I get a lot of other build errorrs related to the content structure of your repo:

Interesting. I don't get these errors.

In fact, at one point Hugo gave me a lot of errors about relative refs such as "../../ui-basics/tab-bar", I then changed them to use one directory level less, e.g. "../ui-basics/tab-bar". Now you tell me that these are again reported as incorrect on your system. How the heck is this possible? I'm using Hugo v0.124.1 (extended edition) on my machine:

$ hugo version
hugo v0.124.1-db083b05f16c945fec04f745f0ca8640560cf1ec+extended darwin/amd64 BuildDate=2024-03-20T11:40:10Z VendorInfo=brew

[xoxys]

I'm wondering: How could I have found out about this myself?

Without deeper knowledge about the theme, I guess there is no easy way. Hugo don't provide a nice way to find performance issues as far as I know.

For instance, Hugo generates a 26 MB GIF from my original 828 KB file 😖

Yeah, that was definitely a bug that should be fixed in the latest release. If you set size=origin image processing should be skipped at all and the source file is used as it.

Interesting. I don't get these errors.

Indeed, that sounds strange, no idea about the root cause. Maybe Hugo has changed something, in the meantime I was still using a bit outdated version.

hugo version
hugo v0.115.2-8966424e0e521fb1627216a84efd2c5d5917cb0d linux/amd64 BuildDate=2023-07-08T17:06:56Z VendorInfo=gohugoio

[herzbube]

I've created #815 to address this issue, at least if size=origin is used.

Just tried out the Geekdoc v0.45.0 release and it worked beautifully - processing is fast and the public folder is now much smaller!

Thanks a lot for your fast response! And of course for the great theme!!