What timeout mechanisms does openSUSE systemd apply during service cancellation?

Direct Answer

TimeoutStartSec is never consulted during service cancellation. When a service receives SIGTERM (via systemctl stop or a dependency-driven stop), systemd uses TimeoutStopSec exclusively. The precedence order for the effective stop timeout is:

1. The unit's own TimeoutStopSec directive
2. The global DefaultTimeoutStopSec in /etc/systemd/system.conf
3. systemd's hard‑coded fallback of 90 seconds

TimeoutStartSec and DefaultTimeoutStartSec apply only during service startup and have no effect on the cancellation path.

How systemd Resolves Conflicting Timeout Values

systemd follows a strict specificity hierarchy: per‑unit settings override the global configuration file, which in turn overrides the compiled‑in default. This rule applies identically to both TimeoutStartSec (start path) and TimeoutStopSec (stop path). There is no merging or additive behavior—the first defined value in the chain wins.

openSUSE Leap vs. Tumbleweed

Both distributions ship systemd with the same built‑in defaults (DefaultTimeoutStartSec=90s, DefaultTimeoutStopSec=90s) and do not modify /etc/systemd/system.conf out of the box. Unless an administrator has edited system.conf or a unit file sets its own timeout, the effective stop timeout on either release is 90 seconds.

Verification Steps

1. Check global defaults:

   grep -E 'DefaultTimeoutStartSec|DefaultTimeoutStopSec' /etc/systemd/system.conf

   (empty output means the 90 s built‑in applies)
2. Inspect a specific unit:

   systemctl cat .service | grep -E 'TimeoutStartSec|TimeoutStopSec'

3. View the resolved values systemd will actually use:

   systemctl show  | grep -E 'TimeoutStartSec|TimeoutStopSec'

4. Observe a real stop:

   systemctl stop  && journalctl -u  --since=now-1min

   The log shows the exact moment SIGTERM and (if needed) SIGKILL are sent.

One Diagnostic Detail Needed

If you are debugging a specific unit that appears to use an unexpected timeout, please provide the output of systemctl show | grep TimeoutStopSec. That single value confirms whether the unit, the global config, or the built‑in default is active.