some duration settings in the config file do not allow a unit suffix

[richvdh]

The config documentation claims 'Configuration options that take a time period can be set using a number followed by a letter', but this is not universally true. Examples include:

• background_updates.background_update_duration_ms
• background_updates.sleep_duration_ms

[richvdh]

(tangentially related: #5584 (comment))

[dklimpel]

If these two values are also parsed by parse_duration,

synapse/synapse/config/_base.py

Line 188 in 5093cbf

def parse_duration(value: Union[str, int]) -> int:

would it make sense to also parse a character string such as ms?

Perhaps also add that integer values automatically means miliseconds?

synapse/docs/usage/configuration/config_documentation.md

Lines 13 to 24 in 5093cbf

	Configuration options that take a time period can be set using a number
	followed by a letter. Letters have the following meanings:
	* `s` = second
	* `m` = minute
	* `h` = hour
	* `d` = day
	* `w` = week
	* `y` = year
	For example, setting `redaction_retention_period: 5m` would remove redacted
	messages from the database after 5 minutes, rather than 5 months.

[richvdh]

If these two values are also parsed by parse_duration,

they are not parsed by parse_duration. This is the problem here. We should add new config settings background_update_duration, etc, which are parsed by parse_duration, and deprecate the old settings.

would it make sense to also parse a character string such as ms?

probably yes, but that doesn't solve this issue.

Perhaps also add that integer values automatically means miliseconds?

again yes that would be helpful, but again doesn't solve this particular problem.