Killing File Control Connections.

[gadbois@sygmund.cgs.utexas.edu]

    Date: Fri, 14 Apr 89 17:04 EDT
    From: barmar@Think.COM (Barry Margolin)

	Date: Fri, 14 Apr 89  11:13:58 MDT
	From: snicoud@atc.boeing.com (Stephen Nicoud)

	Is there anyway to tell the Symbolics to close the file control
	connection as soon as the request I've made is completed?  I found the
	variable FS:*DEFAULT-FILE-CONTROL-CONNECTION-LIFETIME* which is set to
	30 minutes (in 60ths of a second).  I did set it low (30 seconds), but
	I'm concerned that if I happen to be doing a large file transfer, that a
	low value might cut the connection before it was through.

    The timer starts running whenever the connection becomes idle.  If a
    file transfer is in process, it won't time out.

    You can also set this on a per-host basis, by filling in the File
    Control Lifetime field in the server's namespace entry.  The above
    variable is only used for hosts that don't have this filled in.

    I'd set the timer to somewhere between 1 and 5 minutes.  Every time you
    have to reestablish the control connection you're going to be asked for
    a password (unless you set FS:*REMEMBER-PASSWORDS* to T, usually asking
    for trouble).  If you set the timeout too low you'll be asked for a
    password for just about every file operation.

This is getting off the subject a bit, but:  I set
FS:*REMEMBER-PASSWORDS* to t (wrapped in a LOGIN-FORMS) in my lispm-init
file, mainly because I often deal with file connections to Unix boxes
that want passwords a lot.  I had assumed that the remembered password
goes away when the file connection goes away, and that if I was
concerned about leaving them around, I could always manually close the
connection or do a :Reset Network to clobber them all.  Is this a safe
assumption, or are the passwords cached somewhere other than in the file
connection?  I'm mainly concerned about a novice or careless user
accidentally messing up files rather than any malicious acts.

--David Gadbois