Enable Purge when full by default

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:37 am

As above, would save people forgetting to enable it.

MJN · Post by **MJN** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:02 pm

I disagree. You don't want anything enabled by default that will result in things being deleted, particularly when that which gets deleted could be important.

Far better to have a bunch of folk asking 'why aren't my old events being deleted?' than 'where have my events gone?'...

Mathew

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:04 pm

problem is mate, it doesnt cause that it usually causes zm to hang as it runs out of disk space. Then you get posts about 'zm is **** was working now its dead.

MJN · Post by **MJN** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:20 pm

I hear where you're coming from but it just doesn't sit easy with me.

Following your rationale our mail servers, file servers, etc should be configured to automatically start deleting old mail/files when the disk starts getting full in order to ensure there is space for new stuff. I don't consider it to be the application's responsibility to manage disk space, although perhaps that's where our perceptions differ - I use ZM as an application on a multi-purpose server whereas I appreciate many effectively run a ZM-only server.

Perhaps there could be a default 'warn when nearly full' filter which e-mails a notification that the disk is nearing capacity. Indeed, that same warning could even reference the existence of the purge-when-full filter advising that it simply needs enabling if required/desired.

I can see both sides really, perhaps there are some other aspects not discussed that may sway it one way more than the other.

Mathew

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:55 pm

Yeah i see your point, and now i dunno whats best lol

Probably best to leave it as is lol

Post by **cordel** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:59 pm

How about this....
If purgewhenfull filter is not enabled, a popup window like the donations alerts you every so offten or have a warning in red text at the top of the console

MJN · Post by **MJN** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:02 pm

Yeah, might work.

To be honest, you're infinitely more familiar with ZM, and its users, than me so you've arguably got a better understanding of what the average user needs.

Damn, we'll have both swapped sides if this carries on much more!

Mathew

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:34 pm

lol, yeah a popup with a 'do not remind me about this again' if purge when full isnt set to run in the background.

I honestly cannot see a need for a dvr that doesnt re-record over it self, but thats my take on it, not MJN's.

I think to be honest the work it would create to do that is not worth doing, and ill just try and remeber to enable purge when full lol

Post by **zoneminder** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 6:16 pm

Coming late to this, like most of the time.

I was originally inclined to set it to on by default when I read James' original post. However I see the logic also in the other position.

The simplest thing to do is to turn it on. The next simplest thing to do is to have a popup window on first access to the console explaining that it will need to be turned on if you don't want your disk to fill up. After that you are into things like have the disk space display on the console go red etc to flag it which may or may not be useful. I have spoken with James about the need for a general 'system health' indicator and it could be included with that obviously.

I am minded at the moment to just have a 'first access' popup to inform people about this when they start ZM and which might also contain other bits of useful info, like links to the docs etc for when people have just installed packages etc.

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 6:19 pm

Yeah as above i can see the logic in not deleting it just not in my world lol

How about the disk percent is blue when purge is on, red or another colour when not?

Post by **zoneminder** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 6:23 pm

Yes, not a bad idea. Probably could do the green/amber/red thing if PwF is off.

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:33 pm

zoneminder wrote:Yes, not a bad idea. Probably could do the green/amber/red thing if PwF is off.

cool thats that decided then lol
*edit amber = filter currently running?

Post by **zoneminder** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:46 pm

Nope. I thought blue for PwF running, and then green, amber and red for various thresholds of disk say green for >10%, amber for 5-10% and red if < 5%. All configurable of course.

winblowzxp · Post by **winblowzxp** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:02 am

A few months late, but I think it would be really useful to have the ability built in to automatically delete events after a specified amount of time...say 30 days. After 30 days are up, the events older than that get discarded, save for events which you can check off with an archive tag.

Post by **cordel** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:47 am

You already have the ability to remove events over 30 days old, you just have to create the filter for it if you want it.
if greater then -30 days