diff --git a/lib/spack/external/ctest_log_parser.py b/lib/spack/external/ctest_log_parser.py
index 2b2746003a7..d1c8db16c8c 100644
--- a/lib/spack/external/ctest_log_parser.py
+++ b/lib/spack/external/ctest_log_parser.py
@@ -71,6 +71,8 @@
 import re
 import math
 import multiprocessing
+import sys
+import threading
 import time
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 
@@ -409,7 +411,12 @@ def parse(self, stream, context=6, jobs=None):
             pool = multiprocessing.Pool(jobs)
             try:
                 # this is a workaround for a Python bug in Pool with ctrl-C
-                results = pool.map_async(_parse_unpack, args, 1).get(9999999)
+                if sys.version_info >= (3, 2):
+                    max_timeout = threading.TIMEOUT_MAX
+                else:
+                    max_timeout = 9999999
+                results = pool.map_async(_parse_unpack, args, 1).get(max_timeout)
+
                 errors, warnings, timings = zip(*results)
             finally:
                 pool.terminate()