[Pan-users] Re: Feature Request: Bandwidth Throttling

[Duncan]

Brian Morrison <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Mon,
18 Sep 2006 19:43:21 +0100:

> On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:52:40 -0400
> Brian Pack <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
>> So maybe the limit is a good thing. Although I'd be happier with a limit
>> of 5 or 6. :)
> 
> GNKSA specifies a maximum of 4 connections, but there is nothing to stop
> you editing that limit yourself and building a non GNKSA-compliant
> version for your own use.

Correct on GNKSA, and 4 connections is a reasonable standard for other
reasons as well (OE does best with four tho it makes poor use of them,
many FTP sites limit to four).  However, with new-pan the limit is no
longer compiled-in.  Rather, it's a config file option. 

There are at least six "advanced" options where the GUI either limits
flexibility or doesn't have any way to set the option at all, for
simplicity or other reasons.

1) Connection limit
   GUI pref location:    Server Preferences
   GUI pref line:        Connection Limit
   GUI limit:            1-4 connections/server
   Reason:               GNKSA compliance
   Direct pref location: servers.xml
   Direct pref line:     connection-limit (per server)
   Direct limit:         Arbitrary number of connections

2) Expiration
   GUI pref location:    Server Preferences
   GUI pref line:        Expire Old Articles
   GUI limit:            none/2-wk/1-mo/2-mo
   Reason:               Simplicity of config
   Direct pref location: servers.xml
   Direct pref line:     expire-articles-n-days-old
   Direct limit:         Arbitrary number of days

3) Config directory
   GUI pref location:    No GUI option
   GUI pref line:        n/a
   GUI limit:            ~/.pan2/
   Reason:               ~/.pan/, old location, is different format
   Direct pref location: environmental variable
   Direct pref line:     PAN_HOME
   Direct limit:         any place of adequate permissions and freespace
   Notes:                I have several pan-starter scripts that set
                         different $PAN_HOME locations.  This allows for
                         categorization of groups.  For instance, I have
                         separate instances for text-groups, binaries, and
                         temporary testing.  Each of these has it's own
                         settings subdir under ~/pan/.  Where I want to
                         keep the settings files in sync, I use symlinks.
                         The cache dir for the binaries one is symlinked
                         to a dedicated 12-gig partition (see #4 below).

4) Cache size
   GUI pref location:    No GUI option
   GUI pref line:        n/a
   GUI limit:            10 MB default
   Reason:               Simplicity
   Direct pref location: preferences.xml
   Direct pref line:     int name='cache-size-megs'
   Direct limit:         Arbitrary number of megabytes
   Note:                 I have my binary cache instance (see #3 above)
                         set in the tens-of-thousands, so it's tested
                         into the tens of gigabytes at least.

5) Scores
   GUI pref location:    The various score-setting related options
   GUI pref line:        n/a
   GUI limit:            New entry every time
   Reason:               Technical
   Direct pref location: Score
   Direct pref line:     n/a
   Direct limit:         Saner scorefile
   Notes:                See http://www.slrn.org/docs/score.txt for
                         scoring rules, except that entries are
                         case insensitive.  By combining similar entries
                         and reducing the comments (indicated with %),
                         a much leaner and easier to maintain scorefile
                         can be achieved.

6) Keyboard accel custom mapping
   GUI pref location:    Enabled with an obscure entry in gtkrc...
   GUI pref line:        Google for the details.
   GUI limit:            Some unmodified keys can't be set via GUI.
   Reason:               GTK policy (simplicity).  Technical/menu-accel
   Direct pref location: accels.txt
   Direct pref line:     n/a
   Direct limit:         Modifiers shift/alt/ctrl, no win-key or other
   Notes:                Initial semicolon on a line indicates a comment.
                         Pan loads file at open, overwrites it at close.
                         See previous postings to the pan user list or ask
                         for more details.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman