Is there a reason for the discrepancy?

Yes, on bigger instances it often happens that one execution in parallel is not enough, so we use this to run ~3 in parallel.

I see. On smaller instances it can create high load, though. Wouldn't it be simpler to have the admin add additional entries in crontab if they want higher throughput?

On smaller instances it can create high load, though

How so? if there are no jobs, nothing is being done?

On smaller instances it can create high load, though
How so? if there are no jobs, nothing is being done?

I meant small as in a Raspberry Pi for example. People running nextcloud on there may not have the resources to run 3 cron jobs in parallel.

Yes, on bigger instances it often happens that one execution in parallel is not enough, so we use this to run ~3 in parallel.

Shouldn't we rather recommend to setup multiple cron jobs then? That way admins stay in control on how many parallel processes are running and can adapt that to the available resources.

Alternatively, this "maximum number of simultaneous cron jobs" should be configurable.

Yes, on bigger instances it often happens that one execution in parallel is not enough, so we use this to run ~3 in parallel.

@nickvergessen On one end we have "resource-constrained systems which can only handle a single simultaneous execution". On the opposite end of the spectrum where there are "resource-rich systems with lots of available cores/parallelism" and "large instances where one execution is not enough". I don't think "cron.php takes longer than 5 minutes" actually gives you enough information to distinguish between the two scenarios, so some configuration flag (either in Nextcloud itself or via scheduling multiple cron jobs) is needed.