<!--IssueSummary start--> <details> <summary> Everyone can contribute. [Help move this issue forward](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/contributor-success/community-contributors-workflows/#contributor-links) while earning points, leveling up and collecting rewards. </summary> - [Close this issue](https://contributors.gitlab.com/manage-issue?action=close&projectId=278964&issueIid=22353) </details> <!--IssueSummary end--> ### Summary Each job has a timeout (either per runner or per repository), supposedly to keep stuck and out-of-bound jobs under control. Now there are a few time-consuming stages, that can be influenced by the user, namely: - `before_script` - `script` - `after_script` However, there are some more steps involved that add up to the total time, e.g.: - docker image fetch - `pre_clone_script` of the runner. It would be great, if the timeout (at least the per-project timeout) would only take the user-accountable stages into account. ### Steps to reproduce - setup CI-runner `myrunner` - configure the runner with a `pre_clone_script: sleep 1000` - configure project `FOO` to use CI/CD - configure the CI-timeout to be `10 minutes` - configure a job to be run on `myrunner` - trigger a pipeline for project `FOO` to be executed on runner `myrunner` ### What is the current *bug* behavior? Notice how the job will always fail due to timeouts, regardless of the actual time spent in the (user-controlled) `.gitlab-ci.yml` ### What is the expected *correct* behavior? I would have expected the timeout to only take the actual user-defined parts into account (`script`, `before_script`, `post_script`,...). So even if the `pre_clone_script` takes *long*, or fetching a (largish) docker-image takes *long*, this doesn't take away time from the actual build process. ### Possible fixes Have the per-project `timeout` only take those values into account that can be influenced by the user. In order to catch stalled `pre_clone_script` runs or similar, there might be an additional (per-runner) timeout that only applies to the steps outside ther user's control.