Emacs hanging after M-w and C-k

[Stefan Monnier]

Every once in a while Emacs gets into a strange mood where any text killing
(C-k, C-w, M-w, mouse selection, ...) causes it to hang (breakable with
C-g, thank god).

It turns out that it's due to some other app being stuck (probably while
holding the X selection, tho my understanding of the X protocol is too
flakey to be sure).  So maybe it's not strictly speaking an Emacs bug, but
I wish Emacs could grab the X selection asynchronously, so it wouldn't
get stuck.

Does anybody know how feasible this is?


        Stefan