SERVER-1671 pair1.js failing

db/instance.cpp

@@ -497,6 +497,7 @@ namespace mongo {
         if( ntoreturn ) 
             ss << " ntoreturn:" << ntoreturn;
 
+		time_t start;
         int pass = 0;        
         bool exhaust = false;
         QueryResult* msgdata;
@@ -509,6 +510,17 @@ namespace mongo {
             catch ( GetMoreWaitException& ) { 
                 exhaust = false;
                 massert(13073, "shutting down", !inShutdown() );
+				if( pass == 0 ) { 
+  				    start = time(0);
+				}
+				else { 
+				  if( time(0) - start >= 4 ) {
+					// after about 4 seconds, return.  this is a sanity check.  pass stops at 1000 normally 
+					// for DEV this helps and also if sleep is highly inaccurate on a platform.  we want to 
+					// return occasionally so slave can checkpoint.
+					pass = 10000;
+				  }
+				}
                 pass++;
                 DEV 
                     sleepmillis(20);