max-bean-life and max-bean-age

[sradford]

Can anyone explain exactly what the max-bean-life and max-bean-age elements in a container configuration are for?

I've read that the value of (max-bean-life) - (max-bean-age) relates to the timeout of a Stateful Session EJB, but still don't really understand. I mean wouldn't you just have a time that states after what period the container should ejbRemove the bean if it hasn't been called?

Regards,

Sean

[vanitas]

According to the jboss_3_2.dtd:
---
<!--
The age after which a bean is automatically passivated
-->
<!ELEMENT max-bean-age (#PCDATA)>
---

and

---
<!--
The max-bean-life specifies the period of the remover
task that removes stateful beans (that normally have been passivated)
that have age greater than the specified max-bean-life element.
-->
<!ELEMENT max-bean-life (#PCDATA)>
---

best regards,
greg