[webkit-dev] Detecting and handling unresponsive web processes

[Miguel Gomez]

On Wed, 2021-04-28 at 13:11 +0000, Michael Catanzaro wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 27 2021 at 10:18:04 AM +0200, Miguel Gomez via webkit-dev
> <webkit-dev at lists.webkit.org> wrote:
> > * Have some API method that allows to kill the problematic web 
> > process,
> > and let the browser call it when needed. The next load will create
> > a
> > new web process.
> 
> We only need this API if we are unable to fix the existing 
> webkit_web_view_load_* APIs to work when the web process is 
> unresponsive, right? So we probably do not need it.

Right. If we adapt the load APIs to handle the situation we don't need
any new API.

> > * Modify some of the existent load/reload API calls so they check
> > whether the web process is responsive or not. If it's unresponsive,
> > kill the process before trying to do anything else, and a new web
> > process will be created when the rest of the code is executed.
> 
> This behavior is a better default for most client applications.

It's easier for them for sure, as they don't have to do anything
special other than reload the page or load a new one.
 
> Applications that want more control would just need a way to disable 
> this behavior, right?

But if we give the option to disable this behavior, then we need to
provide a way for the apps to handle the situation, don't you think?
And this means adding new API (being it the one to retrieve the process
ID or the one to kill the web content process directly). 

-- 
Miguel Gomez
Igalia - www.igalia.com