# Where discussion of the task "timeout" keyword should go

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-discussion-of-the-task-timeout-keyword-should-go/4665>\
**Category:** Project Discussions\
**Tags:** task, playbook, documentation\
**Created:** [April 1, 2024, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-discussion-of-the-task-timeout-keyword-should-go/4665 "2024-04-01T19:13:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![utoddl](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/utoddl/32/249_2.png) [@utoddl](https://forum.ansible.com/u/utoddl)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2024, 7:13pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-discussion-of-the-task-timeout-keyword-should-go/4665/1 "2024-04-01T19:13:17Z")

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We just accidentally re-implemented the task `timeout` keyword with a combination of `async` and `poll`, mostly because there is discussion of the latter two on the [Asynchronous actions and polling](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbook_guide/playbooks_async.html#asynchronous-actions-and-polling) page, but no discussion of the task `timeout` keyword anywhere. It is mentioned in the [Playbook Keywords](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/playbooks_keywords.html#playbook-keywords) page, but that’s it as far as I’ve found.

The obvious fix is to add some discussion about `timeout` to the docs. Much less obvious is where that discussion should land. My lean is that it should be part of the “Asynchronous actions and polling” page, since it is sort of the “null case” of `async`. At least it should get a mention in the discussion of `async`, particularly since for some cases `timeout` may be a better fit anyway.

Looking through the index for candidate homes for a task `timeout` discussion turns up:

- Using Ansible playbooks / Ansible playbooks / Task execution
- Using Ansible playbooks / Ansible playbooks / Playbook execution / Task execution
- Using Ansible playbooks / Executing playbooks / Asynchronous actions and polling
- Using Ansible playbooks / Working with playbooks / Error handling in playbooks

In other words, the current structure on the left doesn’t make it obvious to me where such a discussion should land. If not in the Asynchronous actions page, then do we have a much bigger problem?

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**Author:** ![bcoca](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/bcoca/32/9269_2.png) [@bcoca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bcoca)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2024, 2:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-discussion-of-the-task-timeout-keyword-should-go/4665/2 "2024-04-03T14:42:16Z")

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I lean for the first, aysnc is itself already a form of timeout and it can muddy the waters, though i would mention it there as a either an incompatible setting.

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**Author:** ![oranod](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/oranod/32/1434_2.png) [@oranod](https://forum.ansible.com/u/oranod)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 4:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-discussion-of-the-task-timeout-keyword-should-go/4665/3 "2024-04-09T16:19:40Z")

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Hey, we talked about this at the DaWGs meeting today (Tues, April 9) and one piece of feedback came in from @acozine that I wanted to put into this thread so it doesn’t get lost:

> My 2 cents on the ‘timeout’ keyword question is - at least a mention on each of those candidate pages, with a link to wherever we put the more fleshed-out discussion. because it is the kind of thing that could be useful in a bunch of different scenarios

That seems like a pretty good approach in my opinion too. Cheers.