> > I wrote: > : This would appear to be the cause of a problem I'm seeing, which is > : that all of the newsreaders I've tried against the server (0.88.3) > : falsely report groups that have articles as being empty, and therefore > : beneath notice. As far as Netscape is concerned, nothing's there. > : With trn, explicitly entering a group anyway usually shows a handful > : of available articles. > > Some more investigation shows that this appears to be a problem with > the caching of active files. The active file for the remote server > gets updated immediately, as nntpcache.servers instructs: > > * information-retrieval.village.org 119 0.0.0.0 0 1h > > However, the active file that gets returned to the client never > changes: > > -rw-r--r-- 1 news 9228 Aug 8 16:26 active > -rw-r--r-- 1 news 9188 Aug 8 18:06 active.information-retrieval.villag > e.org > -rw-r--r-- 1 news 9 Aug 8 18:06 active.information-retrieval.villag > e.org.hash > -rw-r--r-- 1 news 1736 Aug 7 23:51 active.times > -rw-r--r-- 1 news 1700 Aug 8 18:06 active.times.information-retrieval. > village.org > -rw-r--r-- 1 news 9 Jul 31 22:59 active.times.information-retrieval. > village.org.hash > > The information log shows that it is trying to update the cache > (executable paths and timestamps elided, but all are between 18:06:32 > and 18:06:36, remaining long lines broken and indented): > > nntpcached[12528]: 'overview.fmt' older than 'overview.fmt.information-retrie > val.village.org'. > collating > nntpcached[12528]: 'active.information-retrieval.village.org' too old. rebuil > ding > nntpcached-update[12659]: checking server information-retrieval.village.org f > or 'active' > nntpcached[12658]: connect from unknown@fountain.village.org (204.144.255.37) > > nntpcached-update[12659]: spooling 'active' from information-retrieval.villag > e.org -> memory > nntpcached-update[12659]: 'active.times.information-retrieval.village.org' to > o old. > rebuilding > nntpcached-update[12659]: checking server information-retrieval.village.org f > or > 'active.times' > nntpcached-update[12659]: spooling 'active.times' from information-retrieval. > village.org -> > memory > nntpcached-update[12659]: same hash for active.times.information-retrieval.vi > llage.org.tmp > and active.times.information-retrieval.village.org, updating time for > active.times.information-retrieval.village.org > > It's not completely clear to me how `active' gets updated from > `active.$server', so I'm not real sure where to go from here. > Suggestions? > > Dworkin > > This is a timing issue. You have to read news between the minimum update period and the time specified in the servers file. I hacked my copy to change the order of the tests in list.c so that it merged if there was an out of date active in preference to transfering in a new active. At least with this scheme you get tranfer -> merge -> transfer -> merge instead of tranfer -> tranfer -> tranfer -> ... -> merger -> tranfer -> tranfer. This is especially important if it is a quiet server, i.e. only one or two people testing. Mark -- Mark Andrews, CSIRO Div Maths & Stats Locked Bag 17, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia. PHONE: +61 2 9325 3148 INTERNET: marka@syd.dms.csiro.au MOBIL: +61 41 942 9884 UUCP:....!uunet!syd.dms.csiro.au!marka
