[Bug]: Timeout specified using `--timeout 5m` command line argument is ignored

[DaRosenberg]

Description

We are running tests using dotnet test --timeout 5m in GHA. In maybe 10% of runs, a test seems to hang, but the specified timeout is ignored.

Here's a screenshot from GHA showing the issue:

Expected Behavior

I expect the hanging test to be cancelled after 5 minutes.

Actual Behavior

Test run hangs for 6 hours with no progress, until GHA cancels the run.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a test that waits forever
2. Run it with dotnet test --timeout 5m in GitHub Actions

TUnit Version

1.5.41

.NET Version

.NET 10.0

Operating System

Linux

IDE / Test Runner

dotnet CLI (dotnet test / dotnet run)

Error Output / Stack Trace

Additional Context

No response

IDE-Specific Issue?

• I've confirmed this issue occurs when running via dotnet test or dotnet run, not just in my IDE

[thomhurst]

Are you using cancellation token parameters in your tests?

[DaRosenberg]

Are you using cancellation token parameters in your tests?

In general yes. But of course not every single line of code is covered by cooperative cancellation, neither in our code nor in third-party libraries we call into. If a test is hanging, could well be on a line of code somewhere that doesn’t monitor a cancellation token, or isn’t even async.

[thomhurst]

@DaRosenberg can you try on the latest version

[DaRosenberg]

@thomhurst It kind of works I guess — but not sure the reporting/output is how you intended?

Here's what I get if I just throw in a 30-minute Thread.Sleep() into one of the tests, and run it with a 1-minute timeout.

60 seconds of timeout + 30 seconds of your increased cancellation grace period = 1 min, 30 secs ✅

I would expect the interrupted test to be recorded as failed — not omitted from the total count (total count should be 92). And of course would be nice to see which test(s) timed out, so we could do something about it. Exception type and message are also a bit cryptic maybe, would rather expect a TimeoutException with a message like "one or more tests exceeded the allotted timeout".

% dotnet test --timeout 1m
Running tests from bin/Debug/net10.0/OrgFlow.Cli.Tests.Unit.dll (net10.0|arm64)
bin/Debug/net10.0/OrgFlow.Cli.Tests.Unit.dll (net10.0|arm64) failed (1m 29s 989ms)
Exit code: 1
  Standard output: 
  ████████╗██╗   ██╗███╗   ██╗██╗████████╗
  ╚══██╔══╝██║   ██║████╗  ██║██║╚══██╔══╝
     ██║   ██║   ██║██╔██╗ ██║██║   ██║
     ██║   ██║   ██║██║╚██╗██║██║   ██║
     ██║   ╚██████╔╝██║ ╚████║██║   ██║
     ╚═╝    ╚═════╝ ╚═╝  ╚═══╝╚═╝   ╚═╝
  
     TUnit v1.6.15.0 | 64-bit | macOS 26.2.0 | osx-arm64 | .NET 10.0.0 | Microsoft Testing Platform v2.0.2
  
     Engine Mode: SourceGenerated
  
  
  Canceling the test session...
  
  
The following exception occurred when running the test module with RunCommand '/Users/danielrosenberg/Git/OrgFlow/OrgFlow/components/AppCli/test/OrgFlow.Cli.Tests.Unit/bin/Debug/net10.0/OrgFlow.Cli.Tests.Unit' and RunArguments ' ':

System.InvalidOperationException: A test session start event was received without a corresponding test session end.
   at Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.Commands.Test.TestApplication.RunAsync()
   at Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.Commands.Test.TestApplication.RunAsync()
   at Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.Commands.Test.TestApplicationActionQueue.Read(BuildOptions buildOptions, TestOptions testOptions, TerminalTestReporter output, Action`1 onHelpRequested)

Test run summary: Failed!
  error: 1

  total: 91
  failed: 0
  succeeded: 91
  skipped: 0
  duration: 1m 30s 374ms
Test run completed with non-success exit code: 1 (see: https://aka.ms/testingplatform/exitcodes)