Re: corrupted resource(s)

[Lloyd Lim <lim@bmrc.berkeley.edu>]

On Sunday 19 August 2001 02:37 pm, Earl Hood wrote:
>On August 15, 2001 at 16:28, Lloyd Lim wrote:
>> The maillist.html of the archive I was experimenting with now looks
>> like this:
>>
>> $$<$!$D$O$C$T$Y$P$E$ $H$T$M$L$ $P$U$B$L$I$C$
>> $"$-$/$/$W$3$C$/$/$D$T$D$ $H$T$M$L$/$/$E$N$"$>$ $<$h$t$m$l$>$
>> $<$h$e$a$d$>$
>
>	[snip]
>
>This output occurs because of the following setting in your
>resource file:
>
><VARREGEX>
></VARREGEX>
>
>This basically blanked out the pattern that is used for expanding
>resource variables.  I leave it as an excersice for those who
>know Perl on the why the blank pattern causes the above behavior
>(hint, check the documentation on the `split' operator).

OK, that makes sense.

>The ultimate fix is on the user's side since this resource affects
>internal processing and is difficult, if not impossible, to
> auto-verify if the setting will cause problems.  To protect against a
> blank setting, the next version of MHonArc will only honor the
> VARREGEX resource setting if it is non-blank.  The docs for VARREGEX
> will also have a more verbose warning about the using the resource.

I have two suggestions:

(1) Since an empty pattern ('') isn't useful, how about changing it so 
VARREGEX gets set to the default setting?  This is how most of the 
other resources behave.

(2) How about adding an entry to the FAQ about how to reset an archive 
to all of the default settings?  The answer would be:

mha-dbedit -nosaveresources -outdir /path/to/your/archive
mha-dbedit -saveresources -outdir /path/to/your/archive
mhonarc -editidx -outdir /path/to/your/archive

Thanks again for all the support,
+++
Lloyd Lim     <lim@bmrc.berkeley.edu>
Open Mash     <http://www.openmash.org/>