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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ll-xn!cit-vax!mangler
From: mangler@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (System Mangler)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin,news.config
Subject: Re: Sites to be removed unless updates are received
Message-ID: <1186@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Sat, 15-Nov-86 05:18:57 EST
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.1186
Posted: Sat Nov 15 05:18:57 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Nov-86 23:54:16 EST
References: <3064@cbosgd.ATT.COM>
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 18
Summary: the pathalias part becomes out-of-date the soonest
Xref: mnetor news.sysadmin:3 news.config:7

A map entry has two parts:  site description, and pathalias data.
At least around here, the latter loses its validity much faster
than the former.

Stale pathalias data leads to bad paths; it should be flushed
out much more quickly than is being done.  But a stale site
description harms no one; in fact, keeping it for a long time
has the benefit of warding off name duplications.  It also
aids later attempts to contact the delinquent site admin.

Flushing a site's pathalias data doesn't affect the site's
reachability, it just means that the site is considered a
"black hole", because the SA clearly doesn't pay attention.

If routes expired after 6 months, there would be fewer routes
to choose from, but at least the ones remaining would work!

Don Speck   speck@vlsi.caltech.edu  {seismo,rutgers}!cit-vax!speck