title: AWS SWF Flow does the activity start to close timeout include activity retries?
body: <p>I'm trying to configure one of my SWF activities using the Flow framework for java and I can't find any documentation about whether the StartToClose timeout is only for a single activity attempt or for all of the retry attempts for that activity.</p>
  
  <p>Here is the configuration for my activity:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Activity(name = "WaitForExternalTaskToFinish", version = "1.0")
  @ActivityRegistrationOptions(
          defaultTaskScheduleToStartTimeoutSeconds = 60,
          defaultTaskStartToCloseTimeoutSeconds = 60)
  @ExponentialRetry(
          initialRetryIntervalSeconds = 60,
          maximumRetryIntervalSeconds = 300,
          retryExpirationSeconds = 7200,
          exceptionsToRetry = IllegalStateException.class)
  boolean waitForExternalTaskToFinish(long externalTaskId);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm trying to get this activity that is expected to take a very short execution time (eg. 5 sec) but if the activity fails then keep retrying the activity to for 2 hours.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Will this configuration do what I want?</li>
  <li>Do I need to change defaultTaskStartToCloseTimeoutSeconds to 7200?</li>
  <li>If I need to change defaultTaskStartToCloseTimeoutSeconds to 7200, then how do I get the activity to fail if the execution of a single activity attempt is "too long" (eg. 100 sec)?</li>
  </ul>