Why timeout is used for ifdown command?

Question

In one of the script i have seen the ifdown command with timeout

timeout 20 ifdown eth0 --force

for what purpose the timeout may be useful?

Answer 1

In case there is an ifup active it would interfere with the ifdown command. Waiting 20 seconds would avoid this (ifup is likely to finish or error out without 20 seconds).

As an example: OpenVSwitch uses it.