Fix timeout implementation and address review feedback

- Kill git process on timeout: use child_process.spawn directly for
  timeout-eligible operations so we have a ChildProcess handle to send
  SIGTERM (then SIGKILL after 5s). On Windows, SIGTERM is a forced kill
  so the SIGKILL fallback is effectively a no-op there.

- Fix timeout:0 not working: replace falsy || coalescion with explicit
  empty-string check so that '0' is not replaced by the default '300'.

- Refactor execGit to use an options object instead of 5 positional
  parameters, eliminating error-prone filler args (false, false, {}).

- Pass allowAllExitCodes through to execGitWithTimeout so both code
  paths have consistent behavior for non-zero exit codes.

- Add settled guard to prevent double-reject when both close and error
  events fire on the spawned process.

- Handle null exit code (process killed by signal) as an error rather
  than silently treating it as success.

- Capture stderr in error messages for the timeout path, matching the
  information level of the non-timeout exec path.

- Log SIGKILL failures at debug level instead of empty catch block.

- Warn on customListeners being ignored in the timeout path.

- Emit core.warning() when invalid input values are silently replaced
  with defaults, so users know their configuration was rejected.

- Add input validation in setTimeout (reject negative values).

- Clarify retry-max-attempts semantics: total attempts including the
  initial attempt (3 = 1 initial + 2 retries).

- Remove Kubernetes probe references from descriptions.

- Use non-exhaustive list (e.g.) for network operations in docs to
  avoid staleness if new operations are added.

- Add tests for timeout/retry input parsing (defaults, timeout:0,
  custom values, invalid input with warnings, backoff clamping) and
  command manager configuration (setTimeout, setRetryConfig, fetch).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: arabkin

README.md

@@ -155,20 +155,20 @@ Please refer to the [release page](https://github.com/actions/checkout/releases/
     # Default: true
     set-safe-directory: ''
 
-    # Timeout in seconds for each git network operation attempt (fetch, lfs-fetch,
-    # ls-remote). If a single attempt exceeds this, it is killed and retried. Set to 0
-    # to disable. Default is 300 (5 minutes). Similar to Kubernetes probe
-    # timeoutSeconds.
+    # Timeout in seconds for each git network operation attempt (e.g. fetch,
+    # lfs-fetch, ls-remote). If a single attempt exceeds this, the process is
+    # terminated. If retries are configured (see retry-max-attempts), the operation
+    # will be retried. Set to 0 to disable. Default is 300 (5 minutes).
     # Default: 300
     timeout: ''
 
-    # Maximum number of retry attempts for failed git network operations. Similar to
-    # Kubernetes probe failureThreshold.
+    # Total number of attempts for each git network operation (including the initial
+    # attempt). For example, 3 means one initial attempt plus up to 2 retries.
     # Default: 3
     retry-max-attempts: ''
 
     # Minimum backoff time in seconds between retry attempts. The actual backoff is
-    # randomly chosen between min and max. Similar to Kubernetes probe periodSeconds.
+    # randomly chosen between min and max.
     # Default: 10
     retry-min-backoff: ''
 

__test__/git-command-manager.test.ts

@@ -5,6 +5,17 @@ import * as commandManager from '../lib/git-command-manager'
 let git: commandManager.IGitCommandManager
 let mockExec = jest.fn()
 
+function createMockGit(): Promise<commandManager.IGitCommandManager> {
+  mockExec.mockImplementation((path, args, options) => {
+    if (args.includes('version')) {
+      options.listeners.stdout(Buffer.from('2.18'))
+    }
+    return 0
+  })
+  jest.spyOn(exec, 'exec').mockImplementation(mockExec)
+  return commandManager.createCommandManager('test', false, false)
+}
+
 describe('git-auth-helper tests', () => {
   beforeAll(async () => {})
 
@@ -494,3 +505,73 @@ describe('git user-agent with orchestration ID', () => {
     )
   })
 })
+
+describe('timeout and retry configuration', () => {
+  beforeEach(async () => {
+    jest.spyOn(fshelper, 'fileExistsSync').mockImplementation(jest.fn())
+    jest.spyOn(fshelper, 'directoryExistsSync').mockImplementation(jest.fn())
+  })
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    jest.restoreAllMocks()
+  })
+
+  it('setTimeout accepts valid values', async () => {
+    git = await createMockGit()
+    git.setTimeout(30)
+    git.setTimeout(0)
+  })
+
+  it('setTimeout rejects negative values', async () => {
+    git = await createMockGit()
+    expect(() => git.setTimeout(-1)).toThrow(/non-negative/)
+  })
+
+  it('setRetryConfig accepts valid parameters', async () => {
+    git = await createMockGit()
+    git.setRetryConfig(5, 2, 15)
+  })
+
+  it('setRetryConfig rejects min > max backoff', async () => {
+    git = await createMockGit()
+    expect(() => git.setRetryConfig(3, 20, 5)).toThrow(
+      /min seconds should be less than or equal to max seconds/
+    )
+  })
+
+  it('fetch without timeout uses exec', async () => {
+    git = await createMockGit()
+    // timeout defaults to 0 (disabled)
+
+    mockExec.mockClear()
+    await git.fetch(['refs/heads/main'], {})
+
+    // exec.exec is used (via retryHelper) when no timeout
+    const fetchCalls = mockExec.mock.calls.filter(
+      (call: any[]) => (call[1] as string[]).includes('fetch')
+    )
+    expect(fetchCalls).toHaveLength(1)
+  })
+
+  it('fetch with timeout does not use exec', async () => {
+    git = await createMockGit()
+    // Short timeout and single attempt so the test completes quickly
+    git.setTimeout(1)
+    git.setRetryConfig(1, 0, 0)
+
+    mockExec.mockClear()
+
+    // fetch will use spawn path (which will fail/timeout since there's
+    // no real git repo), but we verify exec.exec was NOT called for fetch
+    try {
+      await git.fetch(['refs/heads/main'], {})
+    } catch {
+      // Expected: spawn will fail/timeout in test environment
+    }
+
+    const fetchCalls = mockExec.mock.calls.filter(
+      (call: any[]) => (call[1] as string[]).includes('fetch')
+    )
+    expect(fetchCalls).toHaveLength(0)
+  }, 10000)
+})

__test__/input-helper.test.ts

@@ -144,4 +144,58 @@ describe('input-helper tests', () => {
     const settings: IGitSourceSettings = await inputHelper.getInputs()
     expect(settings.workflowOrganizationId).toBe(123456)
   })
+
+  it('sets timeout and retry defaults', async () => {
+    const settings: IGitSourceSettings = await inputHelper.getInputs()
+    expect(settings.timeout).toBe(300)
+    expect(settings.retryMaxAttempts).toBe(3)
+    expect(settings.retryMinBackoff).toBe(10)
+    expect(settings.retryMaxBackoff).toBe(20)
+  })
+
+  it('allows timeout 0 to disable', async () => {
+    inputs.timeout = '0'
+    const settings: IGitSourceSettings = await inputHelper.getInputs()
+    expect(settings.timeout).toBe(0)
+  })
+
+  it('parses custom timeout and retry values', async () => {
+    inputs.timeout = '30'
+    inputs['retry-max-attempts'] = '5'
+    inputs['retry-min-backoff'] = '2'
+    inputs['retry-max-backoff'] = '15'
+    const settings: IGitSourceSettings = await inputHelper.getInputs()
+    expect(settings.timeout).toBe(30)
+    expect(settings.retryMaxAttempts).toBe(5)
+    expect(settings.retryMinBackoff).toBe(2)
+    expect(settings.retryMaxBackoff).toBe(15)
+  })
+
+  it('clamps retry-max-backoff to min when less than min and warns', async () => {
+    inputs['retry-min-backoff'] = '20'
+    inputs['retry-max-backoff'] = '5'
+    const settings: IGitSourceSettings = await inputHelper.getInputs()
+    expect(settings.retryMaxBackoff).toBe(20)
+    expect(core.warning).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.stringContaining("'retry-max-backoff' (5) is less than 'retry-min-backoff' (20)")
+    )
+  })
+
+  it('defaults invalid timeout to 300 and warns', async () => {
+    inputs.timeout = 'garbage'
+    const settings: IGitSourceSettings = await inputHelper.getInputs()
+    expect(settings.timeout).toBe(300)
+    expect(core.warning).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.stringContaining("Invalid value 'garbage' for 'timeout'")
+    )
+  })
+
+  it('defaults negative retry-max-attempts to 3 and warns', async () => {
+    inputs['retry-max-attempts'] = '-1'
+    const settings: IGitSourceSettings = await inputHelper.getInputs()
+    expect(settings.retryMaxAttempts).toBe(3)
+    expect(core.warning).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.stringContaining("Invalid value '-1' for 'retry-max-attempts'")
+    )
+  })
 })

action.yml

@@ -97,21 +97,20 @@ inputs:
     default: true
   timeout:
     description: >
-      Timeout in seconds for each git network operation attempt (fetch, lfs-fetch, ls-remote).
-      If a single attempt exceeds this, it is killed and retried.
+      Timeout in seconds for each git network operation attempt (e.g. fetch, lfs-fetch, ls-remote).
+      If a single attempt exceeds this, the process is terminated.
+      If retries are configured (see retry-max-attempts), the operation will be retried.
       Set to 0 to disable. Default is 300 (5 minutes).
-      Similar to Kubernetes probe timeoutSeconds.
     default: 300
   retry-max-attempts:
     description: >
-      Maximum number of retry attempts for failed git network operations.
-      Similar to Kubernetes probe failureThreshold.
+      Total number of attempts for each git network operation (including the initial attempt).
+      For example, 3 means one initial attempt plus up to 2 retries.
     default: 3
   retry-min-backoff:
     description: >
       Minimum backoff time in seconds between retry attempts.
       The actual backoff is randomly chosen between min and max.
-      Similar to Kubernetes probe periodSeconds.
     default: 10
   retry-max-backoff:
     description: >