During the investigation of JDK-8269523, the error message has caused some misinterpretation:

# fatal error: VM operation took too long: 2 ms (timeout: 0 ms)

Incorrect: the VM operation took 2ms to *complete* and its duration is greater than the timeout (0ms)

Correct: 2ms has passed since the VM operation started, but it's unknown if that operation is still running or has completed. Nonetheless, a fatal error is inevitable (2ms > 0ms).

I suggest "VM operation took too long: X ms elapsed since VM-op start (timeout: Y ms)". This hopefully avoids misinterpretation in the future.