ExternalTaskSensor uses execution_timeout instead of timeout in defered mode #62516

Apache Airflow Provider(s)

standard

Versions of Apache Airflow Providers

apache-airflow-providers-standard==1.8.0

Apache Airflow version

2.11.0

Operating System

linux

Deployment

Other Docker-based deployment

Deployment details

No response

What happened

When using ExternalTaskSensor in reschedule mode, we need to use timeout field as explained in BaseSensorOperator

:param timeout: Time elapsed before the task times out and fails.
Can be timedelta or float seconds.
This should not be confused with execution_timeout of the
BaseOperator class. timeout measures the time elapsed between the
first poke and the current time (taking into account any
reschedule delay between each poke), while execution_timeout
checks the running time of the task (leaving out any reschedule
delay). In case that the mode is poke (see below), both of
them are equivalent (as the sensor is never rescheduled), which is not
the case in reschedule mode.

Given the docs section above, seems like all sensors should use timeout instead of execution_timeout to have a predictable behaviour in all modes.

But, when we set the sensor in deferrable mode, it passes execution_timeout to the base class defer implementation. This creates an undocumented difference in behaviour between poke and reschedule mode against the deferred mode.

What you think should happen instead

ExternalTaskSensor should use timeout first and fallback to execution_timeout for deferred execution timeouts.

How to reproduce

ExternalTaskSensor(
    task_id='check_sample_task',
    external_dag_id='sample_dag',
    external_task_id='sample_task',
    timeout=60,
    poke_interval=300,
    deferrable=True,
)

Anything else

No response

Are you willing to submit PR?

• Yes I am willing to submit a PR!

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct