This is a limitation of the current implementation, which is though documented correctly: > If set to None, the [time_limit](https://reframe-hpc.readthedocs.io/en/stable/regression_test_api.html#reframe.core.systems.SystemPartition.time_limit) of the current system partition will be used. The problem is that the `time_limit`'s value determine whether the configuration value will be used or not.