Killing File Control Connections.

[Chris Lindblad <cjl@WHEATIES.AI.MIT.EDU>]

    Date: Sat, 15 Apr 89 17:00 CDT
    From: gadbois@sygmund.cgs.utexas.edu (David Gadbois)

	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.

You have a correct understanding of the situation.  When
FS:*REMEMBER-PASSWORDS* is non-NIL, passwords are stored as instance variables
in file-access-paths.  Resetting the file connection from peek, sending the
host a :file-reset t message, doing a :Reset Network command will cause the
file access path to be forgotten, causing the password to be forgotten too.

I set FS:*REMEMBER-PASSWORDS* to T in my init file too.  I don't consider it
asking for trouble.