Change:
<!-- This form is for bug reports and feature requests ONLY! If you're looking for help check and the . --Is this a BUG REPORT or FEATURE REQUEST?: What happened: Watches done with the field of set to some value T end after T regardless of whether there has been any activity in the meantime. What you expected to happen: I expected the watch to end when no events have been delivered in the last T. In ordinary usage, a "timeout" is something that happens if there has been no activity for the specified length of time. How to reproduce it (as minimally and precisely as possible): Create a configmap named in namespace . Then in one shell thrash it periodically like this: Observe that it proceeds to update the configmap every 7 seconds or so. In another shell do a watch with a timeout; observe that it ends even though the thrashing continues. Anything else we need to know?: Environment: Kubernetes version (use ): Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"8+", GitVersion:"v1.8.4+coreos.0", GitCommit:"", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2017-11-21T17:22:25Z", GoVersion:"go1.8.3", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}Cloud provider or hardware configuration: local hardware OS (e.g. from /etc/os-release): Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS Kernel (e.g. ): Linux n17s2ctrl 4.4.0-34-generic -Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 27 16:06:39 UTC 2016 x8664 x8664 x86_64 GNU/Linux Install tools: local Others:
I am told the observed behavior is the intended behavior, the problem here is that the field name and comment are misleading.
/sig api-machinery
It's a timeout on the request lifetime, not an inactivity timeout
The inactivity condition is implied in ordinary usage of the word "timeout". A word like "lifetime", "duration", or "time limit" would be a better description of the existing behavior. I do not propose changing the field name for this, that would be more work than it is worth. I propose updating the commentary on that field to make its meaning clear. BTW, what exactly is this field's meaning to a list operation?

Discussion:
{ "uniqueItems": true, "type": "integer", <del> "description": "Timeout for the list/watch call.", </del> <ins> "description": "Timeout for the list/watch call. This limits the duration of the call, regardless of any activity or inactivity.", </ins> "name": "timeoutSeconds", "in": "query" },

"type": "integer", "paramType": "query", "name": "timeoutSeconds", <del> "description": "Timeout for the list/watch call.", </del> <ins> "description": "Timeout for the list/watch call. This limits the duration of the call, regardless of any activity or inactivity.", </ins> "required": false, "allowMultiple": false },

<tr> <td class="tableblock halign-left valign-top"><p class="tableblock">QueryParameter</p></td> <td class="tableblock halign-left valign-top"><p class="tableblock">timeoutSeconds</p></td> <del> <td class="tableblock halign-left valign-top"><p class="tableblock">Timeout for the list/watch call.</p></td> </del> <ins> <td class="tableblock halign-left valign-top"><p class="tableblock">Timeout for the list/watch call. This limits the duration of the call, regardless of any activity or inactivity.</p></td> </ins> <td class="tableblock halign-left valign-top"><p class="tableblock">false</p></td> <td class="tableblock halign-left valign-top"><p class="tableblock">integer (int32)</p></td> <td class="tableblock halign-left valign-top"></td>

optional string resourceVersion = 4; // Timeout for the list/watch call. <ins> // This limits the duration of the call, regardless of any activity or inactivity. </ins> // +optional optional int64 timeoutSeconds = 5;

// +optional ResourceVersion string `json:"resourceVersion,omitempty" protobuf:"bytes,4,opt,name=resourceVersion"` // Timeout for the list/watch call. <ins> // This limits the duration of the call, regardless of any activity or inactivity. </ins> // +optional TimeoutSeconds *int64 `json:"timeoutSeconds,omitempty" protobuf:"varint,5,opt,name=timeoutSeconds"`

"includeUninitialized": "If true, partially initialized resources are included in the response.", "watch":                "Watch for changes to the described resources and return them as a stream of add, update, and remove notifications. Specify resourceVersion.", "resourceVersion":      "When specified with a watch call, shows changes that occur after that particular version of a resource. Defaults to changes from the beginning of history. When specified for list: - if unset, then the result is returned from remote storage based on quorum-read flag; - if it's 0, then we simply return what we currently have in cache, no guarantee; - if set to non zero, then the result is at least as fresh as given rv.", <del> "timeoutSeconds":       "Timeout for the list/watch call.", </del> <ins> "timeoutSeconds":       "Timeout for the list/watch call. This limits the duration of the call, regardless of any activity or inactivity.", </ins> "limit":                "limit is a maximum number of responses to return for a list call. If more items exist, the server will set the `continue` field on the list metadata to a value that can be used with the same initial query to retrieve the next set of results. Setting a limit may return fewer than the requested amount of items (up to zero items) in the event all requested objects are filtered out and clients should only use the presence of the continue field to determine whether more results are available. Servers may choose not to support the limit argument and will return all of the available results. If limit is specified and the continue field is empty, clients may assume that no more results are available. This field is not supported if watch is true.nnThe server guarantees that the objects returned when using continue will be identical to issuing a single list call without a limit - that is, no objects created, modified, or deleted after the first request is issued will be included in any subsequent continued requests. This is sometimes referred to as a consistent snapshot, and ensures that a client that is using limit to receive smaller chunks of a very large result can ensure they see all possible objects. If objects are updated during a chunked list the version of the object that was present at the time the first list result was calculated is returned.", "continue":             "The continue option should be set when retrieving more results from the server. Since this value is server defined, clients may only use the continue value from a previous query result with identical query parameters (except for the value of continue) and the server may reject a continue value it does not recognize. If the specified continue value is no longer valid whether due to expiration (generally five to fifteen minutes) or a configuration change on the server the server will respond with a 410 ResourceExpired error indicating the client must restart their list without the continue field. This field is not supported when watch is true. Clients may start a watch from the last resourceVersion value returned by the server and not miss any modifications.", }