BGP connect retry time

[dev at kou.li]

Hello,

I am running bird's BGP on a slower link with accounted data. I would
like to lower connection attempt frequency when the peer is down. I
found only two parameters mentioning connection delays: 'connect delay
time' and 'connect retry time'. From documentation, I understood to
change the 'connect retry time' to slow down failed connection attempts,
but the bird seems to use 'connect delay time' repeatedly if the
connection fails (test: bird 1.6.6, peer's firewall drops all BGP
packets). So, what is the 'connect retry time' used for? Also, if I
increase the 'connect delay time' to lower BGP data throughput in case
the peer is offline, I introduce also unwanted delay when everything
works and only the BGP protocol is restarted...

I understand bird 1.6.6 is rather old to ask for any help here. However,
it is such a basic functionality I do not believe it to have changed
recently. Also, I found no mention of these parameters in the NEWS
file.

Milan