Re: arp(7) description of gc_stale_time

Re: arp(7) description of gc_stale_time

[Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)]

[CC += netdev]

On 4/12/21 12:13 AM, Adam Liddell wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Any opinion on this?
> 
> Adam
> 
> On Tue, 16 Feb 2021, at 17:00, Adam Liddell wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> The arp(7) page's description of gc_stale_time doesn't quite describe
>> the behaviour correctly, at least as I understand it.
>>
>> The current description suggests this is the time interval at which a
>> loop will look for stale entries. However, this field is the threshold
>> for marking an entry dead for removal, based on when it was last used
>> (see net/core/neighbour.c lines 935-942) and whether the table is over
>> gc_thresh1. How often this check is done appears to be determined by
>> base_reachable_time (/2) and the third option gc_interval is not
>> involved in this process as far as I can tell, despite its name.
>>
>> Perhaps a draft alternate description could be something along the lines of:
>>
>> Determines the threshold for removing a cache entry after it was last
>> used and when the cache is larger than gc_thresh1. Defaults to 60
>> seconds.
>>

Hi Adam,

Thanks for the ping.  I don't know, sorry.
I added netdev@ so that maybe they can give an opinion.  In the 
man-pages, that text has been there since we use git, so I don't know 
who wrote it.

Thanks,

Alex


-- 
Alejandro Colomar
Linux man-pages comaintainer; https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/