Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!rufus!rufus.almaden.ibm.com!kurt
From: kurt@rufus.almaden.ibm.com (Kurt Shoens)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Expire by Date:
Message-ID: <580@rufus.UUCP>
Date: 15 Mar 91 16:31:22 GMT
References: <1991Mar14.012332.20774@massey.ac.nz> <1991Mar14.194554.12750@zoo.toronto.edu>
Sender: news@rufus.UUCP
Reply-To: shoens@ibm.com
Organization: IBM Almaden Research Center
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I think the underlying problem is that expire gives one the wrong control
knob.  I don't usually want to remove articles older than 15 days (say).
I want to make enough space available for the news that's coming in.
Normally, expiring by the number of days an article has lived on my
system has the desired effect.  But when the news volume ramps up
for some reason, it becomes more apparent that expiring by age is not
what I need.

What I would rather do is give expire two objectives:  get me back B
blocks of free space and I free inodes.  Then, expire should
essentially rank the articles that I currently have and delete the
least precious (typically, the oldest, but you have to take into
account the Expires:  header) until the objectives have been met.  If
the news flow slows down because of, e.g., Spring Break, then I get to
keep a little more.  If it picks up, I keep a little less.

With this sort of control, I don't think that folks would be flipping
between posting date and arrival date as the expiration criterion.

Or does CNews expire already support what I'm suggesting?
--
Kurt Shoens