timeoutNone

timeoutNone is a term used in software development to describe the practice of passing a value that indicates 'no timeout' to a function or API that accepts a timeout parameter. In practice, this often means using a language’s null or None value to signal that the operation may block indefinitely. The concept is common in languages and libraries that treat timeouts as optional controls for I/O, network requests, or synchronization primitives.

Common usage occurs in Python-based libraries, where a timeout parameter may accept a numeric value (seconds) or None to disable the timeout. For example, a socket or an HTTP request may be performed with timeout=None to allow the operation to wait as long as needed. However, behavior varies between APIs: some require an explicit maximum timeout, others default to a non-zero value, and some disallow None entirely.

Implications and considerations: omitting a timeout or setting timeout=None can lead to indefinite blocking, potential resource exhaustion, or unresponsive applications if the operation never completes. It can also complicate error handling because time-based failures are not raised. When using timeout=None, developers should ensure there are separate cancellation mechanisms or watchdogs and consider using asynchronous patterns or separate threads with proper termination.

See also: Timeout (computing), None (Python), Null (programming).