This is the pipeline code I have tried to reproduce this potential issue:

node {
    timeout(time: 2, unit: 'SECONDS') {
        retry(2) {

            parallel(
                      a: {
                            build job: 'Child_Job', 
                            parameters: [
                                string(name: 'Param1', value: 'Val1'),
                                string(name: 'Param2', value: 'Val2')
                            ]
                         }
                    )
        }
    }   
}

Even after timeout of 2 seconds is over (which I thought would be timeout for attempts including retries), the second retry attempt happens anyways and the child job runs indefinitely.

This is the console log:

[Pipeline] node
Running on Jenkins
[Pipeline] {
[Pipeline] timeout
Timeout set to expire in 2 sec
[Pipeline] {
[Pipeline] retry
[Pipeline] {
[Pipeline] parallel
[Pipeline] [a] { (Branch: a)
[Pipeline] [a] build (Building Child_Job)
[a] Scheduling project: Child_Job
Cancelling nested steps due to timeout
[Pipeline] [a] }
[a] Failed in branch a
[Pipeline] // parallel
[Pipeline] }
ERROR: Build of Child_Job was cancelled
Retrying
[Pipeline] {
[Pipeline] parallel
[Pipeline] [a] { (Branch: a)
[Pipeline] [a] build (Building Child_Job)
[a] Scheduling project: Child_Job
Body did not finish within grace period; terminating with extreme prejudice
[Pipeline] [a] }
[a] Failed in branch a
[Pipeline] // parallel
[Pipeline] }
[Pipeline] // retry
[Pipeline] }
[Pipeline] // timeout
[Pipeline] }
[Pipeline] // node
[Pipeline] End of Pipeline
Timeout has been exceeded
Finished: ABORTED

When I handle the exception of child job, this error (ERROR: Build of Child_Job was cancelled) is caught and handled. Retry does not happen in that case.

Please note that if I use sleep(time:3,unit:"SECONDS") instead of "build job" step, the retry attempt does not happen. So, it could be something to do with retry block catching the child-job's cancelled exception (which is caused by timeout) and attempting a retry in-spite of it being inside a timeout block which has already timed out.

With the timeout block within retry block, the timeout is applicable for each attempt or retry separately. So if I set timeout as 2 seconds, 2 seconds is timeout for each time code block executes in retry block. I am actually looking to apply consolidated timeout for all attempts in retry block. 2 seconds as timeout for all attempts including retries. Of course 2 seconds as timeout is only for reproducing the issue.

Please correct me if I am wrong. The above is based on my analysis so far but I usually work on other programming frameworks, So I have very limited knowledge on pipeline framework. Tried asking first in [StackOverflow|https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61053844/jenkins-pipeline-retry-happens-even-after-timeout].