gistfile1.txt

# curl -k http://192.168.10.231:8888 -H "X-Auth-Token:7715cc6c49dc652820c25e4c09684c49bfd9ccf9" -d client='local_async'  -d tgt='saltslave2' -d fun='state.sls' -d arg='tomcat.newinstance'
{"return": [{"jid": "20140327162916805438", "minions": ["saltslave2"]}]}


# curl -k http://192.168.10.231:8888 -H "X-Auth-Token:7715cc6c49dc652820c25e4c09684c49bfd9ccf9" -d client='local'  -d tgt='saltslave2' -d fun='state.sls' -d arg='tomcat.newinstance'
{"return": [{}]}

echo '[{"client": "local", "tgt": "saltslave2", "fun": "state.sls", "arg": ["tomcat.newinstance"], "timeout": 300}]' | curl -k http://192.168.10.231:8888 -H "X-Auth-Token:7715cc6c49dc652820c25e4c09684c49bfd9ccf9" -H "Content-type: application/json" -d@-

Here's a three-liner that will wait indefinitely for a job to complete. This will not have timeout issues.

# Log in:
% curl -c /tmp/cookies.txt -sSi http://localhost:8000/login -d username='saltdev' -d password='saltdev' -d eauth='auto' | head -1 | grep -q '200 OK'

# Get the JID:
% jid=$(curl -b /tmp/cookies.txt -sS http://localhost:8000 -d client='local_async' -d tgt=jerry -d fun='test.sleep' -d arg='8' | sed -r -n -e 's/.*jid": "([0-9]+).*/\1/p')

# Wait for the JID:
% curl -b /tmp/cookies.txt -NsS http://localhost:8000/events 2>/dev/null | while read -r line; do { printf '%s\n' "$line" | grep -q "^data:.*$jid" && printf "%s\n" "$line" && break; }; done

(This example will require modification in order to listen for more than one JID or more than one minion.)