Duration Units

Human-readable duration units for timeout and duration configuration values

Radiator Server supports human-readable duration units for all timeout and duration configuration values, making configuration files more readable and maintainable.

Overview

Duration values can be specified using intuitive unit suffixes instead of raw millisecond values.

Supported Units

Unit	Description	Equivalent (base)
ms	Milliseconds	0.001 seconds
s	Seconds	1000 milliseconds
m	Minutes	60 seconds
h	Hours	60 minutes (3600 seconds)
d	Days	24 hours
w	Weeks	7 days
M	Months	30 days (fixed length)
y	Years	365 days (fixed length)

Note: Months and years use fixed lengths and are not calendar-aware. A month is always 30 days, and a year is always 365 days (no leap year adjustment).

Basic Usage

Simple Duration Values

backends {
    radius "upstream" {
        server "192.168.1.10" {
            timeout 5s;        # 5 seconds
            idle_timeout 30m;  # 30 minutes
        }
    }
}

Combined Duration Values

You can combine multiple units for precise duration specifications:

backends {
    http "api" {
        url "https://api.example.com";
        timeout 1m30s;  # 1 minute and 30 seconds (90 seconds total)
    }

    ldap "directory" {
        server "ldap.example.com" {
            url "ldap://ldap.example.com:389/";
            timeout 2h30m;  # 2 hours and 30 minutes
        }
    }
}

Where Duration Units Apply

Duration units are supported in all timeout and duration configurations across the system:

Backend timeouts: HTTP, LDAP, and RADIUS backend server timeouts
Cache timeouts: Cache entry expiration times
Idle timeouts: RADIUS backend server idle connection timeouts
Custom timeout configurations: Any user-defined timeout values

Best Practices

Use appropriate units: Choose the most natural unit for your use case
- Short timeouts: use seconds (5s, 30s)
- Medium timeouts: use minutes (5m, 30m)
- Long timeouts: use hours or days (2h, 1d)
Combine units for clarity: 1m30s is clearer than 90s for some contexts
Be consistent: Use similar unit patterns across your configuration for readability

Error Handling

Invalid unit suffixes will result in configuration parsing errors with helpful messages indicating the supported units and correct syntax.