port-fetch, ftp passive, and port priority

Peter Much pmc at citylink.dinoex.sub.org
Wed May 4 11:12:30 PDT 2005


Hi all,

some internet providers use a "feature" called "port priority" to
slow down filesharing programs.

The problem is, ftp transfers in passive mode are also slowed down
by this "feature" (and ftp transfers in classical active mode are
usually out of question because one has to open any firewall
for them to work).

There is a nice option for the "fetch" utilitiy, so that one can
use passive ftp and still get around the providers "port priority"
thruput throttle. One can put the variable
	FETCH_BEFORE_ARGS=-U
into /etc/make.conf for this to work on port-builds, or 
when calling "fetch" from the commandline, use the option "-U".
(Only the root user is allowed to use this option, otherwise 
permission is denied.)

I'm posting this, because it seems no one knows about this option:
it actually does not work: although the option exists and gets 
handed thru the various functions, the code to do the real work 
is missing!

I have just added some necessary code, and now it works for me as
intended, and I have sent a bug-report, so I hope this will be 
implemented soon. Interim, my fix is published in bugreport
bin/80620

PMc


More information about the freebsd-questions mailing list