Anyone here who uses ns_db in AOLserver, raise your hand!  Okay, good.
Of those of you with your hand up, how many use ns_db gethandle with the
-timeout arg?

Has anyone noticed that (at least in AS4.0) the -timeout behavior
doesn't agree with the docs?  Has anyone noticed (or cared) that you
can't get a non-blocking "ns_db gethandle"?  The docs hint that if you
pass a -1, you'll get non-blocking (which is just weird anyway).

Well, I've committed a small two-line patch to nsdb so that we DO get a
non-blocking ns_db gethandle, but I've also changed the semantics, so
I'd like to get an idea of how much "backwards compatibility" I've
broken for everyone.

Here's my thoughts:

1) Large number of users of ns_db don't even specify -timeout.  New
behavior will be identical as old behavior, which is to block
indefinitely.

2) Of those who specify -timeout, they specify a value greater than
zero.  New behavior will be identical as old behavior, which is to use
the value specified as timeout in seconds.

3) *!* Of those who specify -timeout as 0, previous behavior was to block
indefinitely.  New behavior is a non-blocking gethandle. *!*

4) Of those who specify -timeout as -1, the docs indicate non-blocking
but the actual behavior was block indefinitely.  New behavior is to
block indefinitely, so functionally, no change.

So, the people who are affected in a backwards-compatible fashion are
those people who explicitly specified -timeout 0 *INTENDING* to get the
old block-indefinitely behavior but will NOW get the new non-blocking
behavior.  How many of you people with your hands still raised have ANY
code that would be affected by this?

More curiously: How many of you have specified -timeout 0 without
reading the docs expecting to get a non-blocking gethandle, while you've
been getting a block-indefinitely one all this while?

-- Dossy

--
Dossy Shiobara                       mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Panoptic Computer Network             web: http://www.panoptic.com/
  "He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
    folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)


--
AOLserver - http://www.aolserver.com/

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