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[flutter_tools] Bound Spotlight mdfind execution with timeout on macOS - #189461
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On macOS, `AndroidStudio.allInstalled()` calls `mdfind` via `runSync` to locate Android Studio installations outside standard locations. When Spotlight (`mds_stores`/`mdworker`) is unresponsive or re-indexing, `mdfind` hangs indefinitely and blocks `flutter doctor` and `flutter daemon`. Wrap `mdfind` in a shell execution with a 3-second process timeout and killer subshell cleanup to prevent `flutter doctor` and `flutter daemon` from hanging indefinitely. If the query times out or fails, `_allMacOS` gracefully falls back to standard candidate paths. Fixes flutter#189177
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This pull request wraps the macOS Spotlight mdfind query in a shell execution with a 3-second timeout to prevent hanging when Spotlight is unresponsive, and adds a test to verify that a timed-out query is handled gracefully. Feedback suggests only assigning the query result when the process exits successfully with an exit code of 0 to avoid processing partial or corrupted output.
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| if (spotlightResult.exitCode != 0) { | ||
| globals.printTrace( | ||
| 'Spotlight mdfind query failed or timed out with exit code ${spotlightResult.exitCode}', | ||
| ); | ||
| } | ||
| spotlightQueryResult = spotlightResult.stdout as String; |
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If the mdfind query fails or times out (resulting in a non-zero exit code), spotlightResult.stdout might contain partial, corrupted, or empty output. It is safer to only assign spotlightQueryResult when the process exits successfully (exit code 0), and otherwise leave it as an empty string to avoid processing invalid paths.
if (spotlightResult.exitCode == 0) {
spotlightQueryResult = spotlightResult.stdout as String;
} else {
globals.printTrace(
'Spotlight mdfind query failed or timed out with exit code ${spotlightResult.exitCode}',
);
}
jmagman
reviewed
Jul 14, 2026
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| @visibleForTesting | ||
| const String kSpotlightMdfindCommand = | ||
| 'mdfind \'kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier="com.google.android.studio*"\' & pid=\$!; (sleep 3; kill -9 \$pid 2>/dev/null) & killer=\$!; wait \$pid 2>/dev/null; status=\$?; kill \$killer 2>/dev/null; exit \$status'; |
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At the very top of our styleguide it says "Never use timeouts or timers". However, sometimes we do when the OS tooling underneath us does hang, ot itself require a timeout (like wireless device discovery).
@vashworth any better ideas for this, given Spotlight caching nonsense?
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Not really, unfortunately. I'm kind of surprised we use Spotlight in the first place. Looking at the code, it looks like this is used for more than just doctor, too. It's called anytime you use androidStudio or java from the context. The code says it's a "nice-to-have", but it may be confusing to users if sometimes it can find it and sometimes it can't.
I'd be more for just removing it out entirely and prompting the user to use the config if it's purposely put in a non-standard location. Or if it does find it, prompting them to save it to the config so it doesn't continuously use Spotlight after it finds it the first time.
I think that's up to the Android team, though
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Lgtm if we want to keep this path (I don't have strong opinions, given that (IIUC) it's a fallback after standard install directory and explicit config directory).
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…Spotlight to locate Android Studio on macOS (flutter#189952) flutter#189461 introduced a script in the flutter_tools AndroidStudio class that wraps the Spotlight mdfind command with a timeout. This script had been waiting for the full 3 second timeout even if the mdfind process exited before then. The extra wait showed up in performance benchmarks of tasks that invoke AndroidStudio such as app compilation. See flutter#189177
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Description
On macOS,
AndroidStudio.allInstalled()callsmdfindviarunSyncto locate Android Studio installations outside standard locations. When Spotlight (mds_stores/mdworker) is unresponsive or re-indexing,mdfindhangs indefinitely and blocksflutter doctorandflutter daemon.This PR wraps
mdfindin a shell execution with a 3-second process timeout and killer subshell cleanup to preventflutter doctorandflutter daemonfrom hanging indefinitely. If the query times out or fails,_allMacOSgracefully falls back to standard candidate paths.Fixes #189177
Tests
installation detection on MacOS gracefully handles unresponsive Spotlight query (issue #189177)unit test inpackages/flutter_tools/test/general.shard/android/android_studio_test.dart.