Here's a seemingly-related failure in the runtime test on the same builder:

--- FAIL: TestPanicTraceback (0.00s)
    crash_test.go:67: starting testprog PanicTraceback: fork/exec /data/golang/workdir/tmp/go-build726730629/testprog.exe: resource temporarily unavailable
FAIL

(https://build.golang.org/log/e518ab1802ac73754f4f3a51d7fb3cba86868b4e)

So perhaps it's not specific to the misc/cgo/errors test.

CC @mundaym

Change https://golang.org/cl/179603 mentions this issue: misc/cgo/errors: limit number of parallel executions

I haven't seen misc/cgo/errors flake again, but this still occurs sporadically in other tests:
https://build.golang.org/log/75ddd2b8e6749643c9150bf8846ed69f5afdcddf
https://build.golang.org/log/7028d294ba985b9bd6e5cb2024af1fa2a07f7b37
https://build.golang.org/log/2cc3638b3235b7a7b63a474df5991ec468dc404d

I think this may need a deeper fix in our fork/exec wrapper.

I've done a bit of digging (systemd isn't something I'm very familiar with) and I think this might be due to the default systemd TasksMax setting in SLES 12. It is only 512 threads which includes stage0 and the buildlet and everything they spawn...

I don't know if the fork/exec wrapper can do much if it hits a limit like this, I don't think retrying will necessarily solve the situation.

I've added the following lines to the buildlet service:

TasksMax=65536
LimitNOFILE=65536
LimitNPROC=65536

Hopefully this will make the s390x builder less flaky in future...

Does anyone know if there is a way to check the current cgroup's resource limits? Maybe we can get the buildlet to print some of them.

@bradfitz and @dmitshur: any thoughts on the systemd task settings we should be using for buildlets?

any thoughts on the systemd task settings we should be using for buildlets?

For Go stuff I've always just used the defaults. But maybe the defaults have changed or your distro has lower limits or s390x ends up creating more threads for some reason?

Does anyone know if there is a way to check the current cgroup's resource limits? Maybe we can get the buildlet to print some of them.

I don't. But that's a good idea.

But maybe the defaults have changed or your distro has lower limits or s390x ends up creating more threads for some reason?

I think it's a distro defaults thing. Ubuntu 18.04 defaults to 4915 tasks which is a lot more headroom.