Documentation stuck in 'cloning' state

[virtuald]

Details

• Project URL: exaile.readthedocs.io
• Build URL (if applicable): https://readthedocs.org/projects/exaile/builds/
• Read the Docs username (if applicable): virtuald

Expected Result

Build to... build.

Actual Result

4 builds appear to be stuck in 'cloning' state.... which is strange, because a builds were working fine earlier.

[bwohlberg]

I'm experiencing the same problem with the docs for project sporco. One of the builds has been stuck in 'cloning' state for 36 hours.

[dpdani]

Same here with 5 builds in Cloning state. The oldest one being about 3 hours old.

• #5290405
• #5290768
• #5290989
• #5291057
• #5291066

[virtuald]

New builds are working now, but old builds still stuck in 'cloning' state. Feel free to close.

[bwohlberg]

Based on previous bug reports it looks as if this problem has occurred previously as well; it's probably worth trying to locate the cause rather than just closing the issue.

[humitos]

These kind of errors I think are because there was a problem in the git clone command, and exception was raised, the process ended and the status wasn't communicated, so it seems that it's still cloning.

Common errors are:

• the repository is private and requires username/password to be cloned
• temporary network error
• wrong git url
• error in .gitmodules files

I think that a good enhancement would be that instead of showing Cloning, RTD should show the error message returned by the git clone command. For example,

fatal: could not read Username for 'https://bitbucket.org': No such device or address

[agjohnson]

I agree, we need to be more defensive around the clone stage. We should also be assuming a build has failed after a certain threshold, builds shouldn't be sticking around as "cloning" or any other temporary state.

The first case is easier to catch -- perhaps just some generic exception or exit code handling is all that is needed. It would be best if we can ensure state here, and avoid having to alter this state afterwards.

[humitos]

Another issue that talks about the ability of killing this blocked in some status: #2471

[bcb]

This is still a problem. Stuck at "cloning".