Sometimes, some tests are stopped because of SIGALRM. A recent example:
-----------------------
[157/357] test_socketserver
Alarm clock
*** Error code 142
-----------------------
http://www.python.org/dev/buildbot/all/builders/x86%20FreeBSD%206.4%203.x/builds/1647/steps/test/logs/stdio

faulthandler is able to dump the Python backtrace in such case, we just have to register the SIGALRM signal handler. regrtest should be patched: just add faulthandler.register(signal.SIGALRM).

It would be nice if faulthandler calls the previous signal handler. By default, it replaces the existing signal handler and so it changes the behaviour.

A test should also be added to faulthandler for SIGALRM, this signal is special because of its default signal handler (it exits the process).

New changeset 39873557ff4f by Victor Stinner in branch 'default':
Issue #12550: Add chain optional argument to faulthandler.register()
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/39873557ff4f

New changeset 30f91fbfc8b3 by Victor Stinner in branch 'default':
Issue #12550: regrtest displays the Python traceback on SIGALRM or SIGUSR1
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/30f91fbfc8b3

My patch doesn't work: the traceback is not printed:
--------------------------
$ ./python -m test -v -u network -F test_threadsignals
(...)
[106] test_socketserver
(...)
test_UnixStreamServer (test.test_socketserver.SocketServerTest) ... creating server
ADDR = /tmp/unix_socket.wuwy8y
CLASS = <class 'socketserver.UnixStreamServer'>
server running
test client 0
test client 1
test client 2
waiting for server
done
ok
test_shutdown (test.test_socketserver.SocketServerTest) ... Alarm clock: 14
--------------------------

SocketServerTest uses a timeout of 20 seconds implemented using signal.alarm(). I suppose that the timeout is too small for this very slow buildbot.

Oops, I specified the wrong issue number if the commits:

New changeset d3cebbd500aa by Victor Stinner in branch '2.7':
Issue #12250: test_socketserver uses a timeout of 60 seconds instead of 20
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/d3cebbd500aa

New changeset 05dfed82457a by Victor Stinner in branch '3.2':
Issue #12250: test_socketserver uses a timeout of 60 seconds instead of 20
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/05dfed82457a

New changeset a609b2a44f92 by Victor Stinner in branch 'default':
(merge 3.2) Issue #12250: test_socketserver uses a timeout of 60 seconds
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/a609b2a44f92

Can this be closed?

> Can this be closed?

I think (hope) that the initial issue (test_socketserver) failure is fixed, thanks to my second commit.

I'm not complelty satisfied because the traceback was not printed on a SIGALRM when i tried -m test -F test_socketserver. But if I raise manually the signal, using signal.alarm(10) for example, the traceback was printed on FreeBSD 6.4 and let close this issue.