Do caches in ehcache.xml inherit from defaultCache?

The timeToIdleSeconds will be default value and not inherit from "defaultCache". The "defaultCache" is a bit misnomer/misleading, in the sense that it does not provide "defaults" for every cache, but its just a way of specifying config for caches that can/are added dynamically - using cacheManager.addCache(String cacheName).

From http://www.ehcache.org/ehcache.xml, documentation for that tag reads

Default Cache configuration. 
These settings will be applied to caches created programmatically using
 CacheManager.add(String cacheName). This element is optional, and using
 CacheManager.add(String cacheName) when its not present will throw CacheException
 The defaultCache has an implicit name "default" which is a reserved cache name.