How to force an Emacs tramp time out?

Question

I use TRAMP a lot with emacs. However, sometimes a server goes down and tramp sits waiting for a timeout. Usually it's after doing a C-x-f in ido-mode to open a new file. I have to wait an annoyingly long amount of time. Is there an easy way to tell TRAMP to timeout and let ido-mode continue. I try C-g and the option to open a file never happens.

Answer 1

In thoses (frequent) cases when tramp stalls, I just halt the process with C-g, kill the tramp buffer and I can then save the file.

M-x kill-buffer RET *tramp.*

Answer 2

I don't face such timeout situation though I frequently use TRAMP. Try something like

(defun tramp-find-file-timeout ()
  (when tramp
    (with-timeout (4)
      (keyboard-quit))))
(add-hook 'find-file-hook 'tramp-find-file-timeout)

I used this and this to make this suggestion. something better than keyboard-quit could work for you.

Answer 3

I found one hint that can limit the painful wait to 5 seconds. Add this line to .ssh/config:

Host *
     ServerAliveInterval 5

However, after five seconds, you still can't choose a file. So, when it fails just do a C-x b to a buffer that's not opened on the downed server and C-x-f from there will not take forever.