Subject: Re: [PATCH] gitlab-ci: disable realtime monitoring to unbreak Windows jobs

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2025 09:35:09 -0700

Patrick Steinhardt <[email-masked]> writes:

> The GitLab CI runners using Windows machines have realtime monitoring
> via Windows Defender enabled by default. This has just now started to
> cause issues in our CI jobs using Microsoft Visual Studio:
>
>     Program 'meson.exe' failed to run: Operation did not complete successfully because the file contains a virus or
>     potentially unwanted softwareAt line:356 char:1
>     + meson setup build --vsenv -Dperl=disabled -Dbackend_max_links=1 -Dcre ...
>     + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
>     At line:356 char:1
>     + meson setup build --vsenv -Dperl=disabled -Dbackend_max_links=1 -Dcre ...
>     + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>         + CategoryInfo          : ResourceUnavailable: (:) [], ApplicationFailedException
>         + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandFailed
>
> The detected issue is more likely than not completely bogus, but it
> breaks the jobs.
>
> Fix the issue by disabling realtime monitoring. Besides unbreaking CI,
> it also improves our build times a bit:
>
>   - Building Git goes from 26 to 22 minutes.
>
>   - Executing tests goes from ~1h for one slice of tests to ~30 minutes.

Interesting observation.  I didn't realize that we are shipping
virus or potentially unwanted software.

Does the same issue exist on other forges (like GitHub Actions), I
wonder?