tunable udp timeout?

[Rusty Russell]

In message <20010606225902.A1536@corellia.laforge.distro.conectiva> you write:
> During the whole discussion, I get more and more convinced that having
> sysctl-configurable timeouts for all conntrack time settings might be
> better. 
> 
> I still remember the old 'bells-and-whistles' button discussion, but 
> have a look at /proc/sys/net/ipv4 already offers plenty of settings,
> and I think it's a good idea to follow those examples...

When we've exhausted all avenues of automatically doing the right
thing, sure.  In my opinion, we're not there yet.  In a way, treating
UDP ports separately is an admission of failure, but there are real
problems for which noone has proposed a solid solution.  At the very
least, a list of ports for greater timeout is needed.

Actually, /proc/sys/net/ipv4 is a really good example.  Almost every
setting in here reflects:

(1) A bandaid for broken stacks, or
(2) A failure of the code to adapt at runtime.

ie. Almost every setting in here is an admission of failure (ours or
someone else's).

The `ftp timeout' problem in 2.0 and 2.2 was never fixed.  Because
there was a sysctl, and programmers are lazy.  Once we head the same
way, the code will never be really fixed: it'll be up to each and
every user to fix it themselves.

I suggest everyone who is deeply interested in this debate go and read
the first few chapters of Donald Norman's Design of Everyday Things
(or Psychology of Everyday Things as it was originally called).  IMHO
it should be required for every engineer.

Rusty.
--
Premature optmztion is rt of all evl. --DK