Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!telly!eci386!woods
From: woods@eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods)
Subject: Re: (C News) limit filesize and inews
Message-ID: <1991Jan8.183027.10802@eci386.uucp>
Reply-To: woods@eci386.UUCP (Greg A. Woods)
Organization: Elegant Communications, Inc.
References: <1991Jan6.073729.21354@zoo.toronto.edu> <3464@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> <1991Jan7.182907.13583@zoo.toronto.edu> <3480@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>
Date: Tue, 8 Jan 91 18:30:27 GMT

In article <3480@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> sob@tmc.edu (Stan Barber) writes:
> In article <1991Jan7.182907.13583@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
> >Until news traffic grows a bit more or the user reduces his size limit
> >further, that is.  This does not really solve the problem.
> 
> Okey, WHAT IS THE SOLUTION THEN?
> 
> Just for fun, let's eliminate the "Get the OS fixed" answer.
> 
> For even more fun, let's eliminate "change the system wide parameters"
> answer, too.
> 
> Now, what's the answer?

Hmmm...  I think the answer is that we've finally discovered how
ludicrous file size limits are when they are below either the size of
your disk, or the free space on it, with perhaps with a small margin
for safety.

I do believe you *cannot* eliminate the "Get the OS fixed" answer,
since, IMHO, it is the *only* answer.

As for circumstances where the system-wide parameters are too low, or
the user reduces his own limits too low, then they get exactly what
they asked for, even if they didn't understand in the first place.  It
is most definitely *NOT* the programmer's responsibility in these
cases, though if you want to be real nice you can check the limit (if
possible and easy), perhaps only at start-up time, and emit a warning
about possible file truncation or failure.  I certainly don't believe
in handling it gracefully though!  I'd pay more heed to hard limits,
such as disk full, and artificial limits.  The limits should only be
used by those who understand the full implications of using them, and
all others should set them to the max and ignore them.

Actually, I must say that reasonable cpu, memory, and coresize limits
can be useful.  However these are the very limits that SysV has not
implemented (up to R4).
-- 
							Greg A. Woods
woods@{eci386,gate,robohack,ontmoh,tmsoft}.UUCP		ECI and UniForum Canada
+1-416-443-1734 [h]  +1-416-595-5425 [w]  VE3TCP	Toronto, Ontario CANADA
Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible-ORWELL