Windows shell timeout/cancellation can orphan descendants; timeout appeared sensitive to a wall-clock step

What version of Codex CLI is running?

codex-cli 0.144.6

What subscription do you have?

Pro

Which model were you using?

gpt-5.6-sol ultra

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What terminal emulator and version are you using (if applicable)?

Windows Terminal using PowerShell

Codex doctor report

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}

What issue are you seeing?

Windows shell timeout/cancellation can orphan descendants; timeout appeared sensitive to a wall-clock step

Environment:

• Codex app shell path: functions.exec -> tools.shell_command
• Windows NT 10.0.26200.0
• PowerShell 7.6.3
• Current installed CLI reports codex-cli 0.144.6; please use the attached session logs as the authoritative build identity for the July 24-25 executions.

Observed behavior:

1. On 2026-07-24, Windows time synchronization stepped the workstation clock forward by approximately 9h50m while a long-running test command was active. The shell tool returned exit 124 before the requested monotonic elapsed duration had passed. This appears consistent with wall-clock deadline accounting rather than a monotonic timeout.
2. Independently, on 2026-07-25, stopping a running exec cell terminated its PowerShell wrapper but not its descendants. TestWorkspace.Cli PID 72412 and its guardian PID 58588 remained alive; the run continued and held build outputs. Stopping only PID 72412 later allowed the guardian to drain its owned Job.

Minimal cancellation repro:

$pidPath = Join-Path $env:TEMP 'codex-orphan-child.pid'
Remove-Item -LiteralPath $pidPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$child = Start-Process pwsh -PassThru -ArgumentList @(
    '-NoProfile',
    '-Command',
    'Start-Sleep -Seconds 300'
)
$child.Id | Set-Content -LiteralPath $pidPath
$child.WaitForExit()

Run that through the shell tool with a long timeout, then stop the Codex tool call after the PID file appears. Check afterward:

$childPid = [int](Get-Content -LiteralPath (
    Join-Path $env:TEMP 'codex-orphan-child.pid'))
Get-Process -Id $childPid

Expected: timeout, cancellation, or caller loss terminates the entire owned process tree and the tool returns only after bounded quiescence and output drain. Timeout duration should use a monotonic elapsed-time source.

Actual: the wrapper can terminate and return while descendants continue running. The clock-step incident also produced a premature timeout.

Requested behavior:

• Use a monotonic deadline for timeout accounting.
• Assign the command to a platform process group/Windows Job before its first instruction.
• On timeout, cancellation, or caller loss, terminate the entire owned tree and boundedly wait for zero remaining processes and drained pipes.
• Distinguish confirmed cleanup from unconfirmed cleanup in the terminal result; do not report an ordinary timeout if descendant cleanup is uncertain.
• If detached execution is intentional, expose it explicitly with a durable receipt and reattachment/termination contract rather than silently orphaning the process.

Local mitigation, not a Codex fix:

Our repository now routes authoritative long-running commands through a C# process run wrapper. On Windows it creates the target suspended inside an unnamed kill-on-close Job, gives an independent guardian exact Job/controller/caller-ancestry handles before resuming it, uses a relative timer and Stopwatch timestamps, and waits for Job quiescence on timeout, cancellation, controller death, or outer-caller loss. It reports 124/130 only after confirmed cleanup and 125 when cleanup cannot be confirmed. This protects only commands explicitly routed through this repository-specific wrapper; ordinary Codex shell calls remain exposed.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Uploaded thread: 019f6d87-f13a-7492-9cd5-fcdc218ee012

What is the expected behavior?

See above

Additional information

_No response_