timeout still working?

[wenq1]

In bull3, there's a job option (timeout)

In bullmq4, it is commented out in worker.ts:

 if (timeoutMs) {
        jobPromise = jobPromise.timeout(timeoutMs);
      }

is the feature still working?

[manast]

good that you bring this up, actually is not implemented in BullMQ, because I was planing a better cancellation mechanism than the one we have in bull v3

[wenq1]

Thanks for the update. Do you consider at least make bullmq feature compatible (not necessarily api-compatible) so that people could make a switch over? There's also a bug I would like to bring up. Is pull requests welcome at all?

[manast]

BullMQ its already basically backwards compatible with Bull, the major difference is how real time events are handled, and also this cancellation thing that you pointed out. I am not aware of anything else, we also provide a v3 backwards compatibility layer, you can read some of this here (WIP): https://docs.bullmq.io/
And yes, PR always welcome of course :).

[wenq1]

I'll create an issue in another thread.

[Deadly0]

@manast any progress with timeout? If no, I will try to implement it and make a PR. Can you give me a recommendation or requirement about implementation of task cancellation?

[manast]

@Deadly0 the main reason it is not implemented is because I have not figured out a nice way to implement cancelation. There is no native cancellation support for async functions in javascript, and none of the alternatives are very nice, but I am open to compromise if somebody can propose a working solution.

[adamreisnz]

This property is documented here but it still doesn't seem to work.

https://github.com/taskforcesh/bullmq/blob/master/docs/gitbook/api/bullmq.jobsoptions.timeout.md

What about the approach that was discussed in OptimalBits/bull#479 4 years ago?

[manast]

@adamreisnz I think I can pull out something soon that is good enough.

[adamreisnz]

That'd be great, thanks

[dtboy1995]

mark

[acro5piano]

I'm doing something like this:

new Worker('paint', async () => {
  await Promise.race([
    timeout(5000),
    doSomeAsyncTask()
  ])
})

async function timeout(ms: number) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    setTimeout(() => reject(), ms)
  })
}

[adamreisnz]

@manast so it seems this feature has been implemented, but it's only available in the paid/pro version, is that correct?

[adamreisnz]

@acro5piano that's an interesting solution. Note that if using Bluebird promises, you can also simply use Promise.timeout() as the second array item for Promise.race()

[manast]

@adamreisnz yes, it is using observables which is probably the only correct way to cancel asynchronous calls in a generic way in Javascript, more documentation and examples coming in the following days: https://docs.bullmq.io/bullmq-pro/observables

[manast]

@acro5piano it is important to point out that even though the job will "fail" if it times out, the "doSomeAsyncTask" will continue to work with potential side-effects as a result... if this is acceptable or not depends on what that function is doing.

[acro5piano]

@acro5piano it is important to point out that even though the job will "fail" if it times out, the "doSomeAsyncTask" will continue to work with potential side-effects as a result... if this is acceptable or not depends on what that function is doing.

Thanks, I didn't realize it!

[motiejunas]

So what is the plan with this? Why does this settings exists if it is not expected to work now? It took me hours to find out that this is just a dummy setting.

I thinktimeout prop should be either completely removed to reduce confusion or implemented in a way @acro5piano suggested (with a potential side-effect warning).

[manast]

@motiejunas yes, we should take care of this ASAP. I think we will remove this setting entirely but maybe add another one that works in a different way, not as a timeout that kills the current job that is being processed but that fails it directly if the job is too old when it arrives at the worker. For a clean mechanism to actually timeout jobs I would refer to the Pro version, where we support observables and can therefore cleanly cancel a running job.

[autarchprinceps]

I'm doing something like this:

new Worker('paint', async () => {
  await Promise.race([
    timeout(5000),
    doSomeAsyncTask()
  ])
})

async function timeout(ms: number) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    setTimeout(() => reject(), ms)
  })
}

This only implements a timeout inside a single run of the worker task. What I expected timeout to do and would need, is for the message to be removed from the queue, if it hasn't been (successfully) processed, including wait & retries, for a certain amount of time.
What you are describing sounds more like the stalled job feature to me. "When a worker is not able to notify the queue that it is still working on a given job, that job is moved back to the waiting list." Assuming retries are not exhausted, that is exactly what your timeout reject would do, at least from a use case perspective, right?

[acro5piano]

@autarchprinceps
Yeah, as other people mentioned, that implementation just tells BullMQ "the job failed" and the job is still running even if it was failing. However it should be better than nothing reported.

I strongly agree with @motiejunas as the current type definition of the option is confusing. It actually doesn't work but it has the option.

[roggervalf]

closed by #1284

[Rush]

So let's say the workers are dead and then some code accumulates thousands of jobs in the queue. I thought of using timeout to prevent bullmq from processing some very old jobs that should be scrapped. What's the pattern to achieve this in bullmq?

[GeoffreyPlitt]

I've scanned through all of the comments and can't find a clear answer about whether BullMQ timeouts are working or not, is there a conclusion we can draw?

[isaachinman]

@manast Is the timeout option still relevant on jobs in v5? I see mentions of it in various issues and changelogs, but the TypeScript types themselves do not mention it anywhere.

I want to be able to kick off a job with an absolute timeout, such that if it enters an active state and does not succeed or fail in X minutes, it should be forcibly failed.

Have been searching for a half a day, would appreciate any guidance here.

[manast]

There is no timeout anymore, since the Promise standard got rid of cancellation support. The timeout would then have given the impression that the job was cancelled when in fact it was still running. The options here are to implement the timeout yourself in the processor function of the worker, or use Observables from the Pro version... even using observables is still not a walk in the park but at least it is doable.

[isaachinman]

implement the timeout yourself in the processor function of the worker

What exactly do you mean by that? Like, a race condition setTimeout that rejects?

[manast]

What exactly do you mean by that? Like, a race condition setTimeout that rejects?

For example, and that cleans up whatever it needs to clean up before rejecting.

[manast]

As an example, this is what I am doing in bullmq-proxy: https://github.com/taskforcesh/bullmq-proxy/blob/main/src/controllers/http/worker-http-controller.ts#L32

[isaachinman]

Cool, thanks mate.