Bug#1110650: /usr/lib/apt/apt-helper: make wait-online timeout configurable

Package: apt
Version: 2.6.1
Severity: wishlist
File: /usr/lib/apt/apt-helper

Dear Maintainer,

the wait-online timeout is currently hard-coded, the value of 30 seconds is insufficient in some cases. Example use case: workstation that is turned on at the same time as a router it relies on for connectivity, which takes ~2.5 minutes to boot. The `apt-helper wait-online` (`ExecStartPre` of apt-daily.service) times out before the connection becomes usable and the workstation is typically shut down before the next timer trigger, so effectively unattended-upgrades never runs.

Please make the timeout configurable.


-- Package-specific info:

-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --


-- (no /etc/apt/preferences.d/* present) --


-- (/etc/apt/sources.list present, but not submitted) --


-- (no /etc/apt/sources.list.d/* present) --


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.11
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-37-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  adduser                 3.134
ii  debian-archive-keyring  2023.3+deb12u2
ii  gpgv                    2.2.40-1.1
ii  libapt-pkg6.0           2.6.1
ii  libc6                   2.36-9+deb12u10
ii  libgcc-s1               12.2.0-14+deb12u1
ii  libgnutls30             3.7.9-2+deb12u5
ii  libseccomp2             2.5.4-1+deb12u1
ii  libstdc++6              12.2.0-14+deb12u1
ii  libsystemd0             252.38-1~deb12u1

Versions of packages apt recommends:
ii  ca-certificates  20230311+deb12u1

Versions of packages apt suggests:
pn  apt-doc                      <none>
pn  aptitude | synaptic | wajig  <none>
pn  dpkg-dev                     <none>
ii  gnupg                        2.2.40-1.1
pn  powermgmt-base               <none>

-- no debconf information