I have seen situations where the project comms will time out after 5 minutes which is the default setting unless changed via cc_config. Its possible that it would try 1st attempt and then timeout after 5 mins followed by another go before going into project backoff. That would mean at least 10 minutes plus the default backoff interval before it goes into project backoff.

In general, if something is written in the docs, it can be trusted. Occasionally, things get out of whack (something gets changed in code without updating the docs, fo example): if something like that comes to our attention, either Jord or I will try to correct it.

If nothing is written in the docs, it is not safe to make any assumptions: consistency is not guaranteed, however desirable. I've had a search through the code, and I can't find anywhere where the specific case of max_stdout_file_size=0 is handled. My best guess is that a new file would be created every time BOINC is restarted, and just one single run would be kept as the 'old' file. That's probably not what you wanted.

If you're seeing, specifically, timeouts - you could try a couple of config options:

        <dont_contact_ref_site>1</dont_contact_ref_site>

Cuts out the 'internet access' check (doesn't pester Google). I guess we tend to know whether the internet is up without BOINC telling us...

        <http_transfer_timeout>60</http_transfer_timeout>

I think this controls scheduler requests as well. Default is 300 seconds - I think 60 is plenty on a decent connection (if it ain't happened by then, it ain't going to happen).

But with GPUGrid, I was getting a more proactive 'Couldn't connect to server' before the timeout. I'll compare your dropbox cc_config.xml with mine more thoroughly after dinner.