Question

I am not a Google App Engine user. However, I understand you’re billed for CPU time and other resources. What are the consequences if you happen to create an infinite loop? Will Google ever terminate it, or will you have to do it yourself manually somehow?

I’m a hobbyist developer worried about a small error that might end up costing hundreds.

Answer 1

(I’m a Google employee but have little experience with AppEngine. Please don’t consider this an “official” response.)

I’m guessing you’re using the Java servlet API – if not, please specify.

From the AppEngine servlet docs:

A request handler has a limited amount
of time to generate and return a
response to a request, typically
around 30 seconds. Once the deadline
has been reached, the request handler
is interrupted.

I don’t know how/whether this occurs in a tight-loop which wouldn’t allow the VM to interrupt it in “normal” Java.