mk@aifh.ed.ac.uk (05/01/91)
I am having problems with the ~news/history file getting corrupted, this causes incoming news to be junked. This happens about once a week on average. Seems to get corrupted when running Cnews expire. Only way to fix it is to run mkhistory Anyone got any ideas? Below are extracts of error messages: From news@ed.aifh Wed May 1 05:24:35 1991 Received: from helium by aipna.ed.ac.uk; Wed, 1 May 91 05:24:23 GMT From: Network News Administrator <news@ed.aifh> Date: Wed, 1 May 91 05:20:06 BST Message-Id: <14105.9105010420@aifh.ed.ac.uk> Apparently-To: news Status: RO expire problems: expire: dbzagain(history.n) failed From news@ed.aifh Wed May 1 08:22:47 1991 Received: from helium by aipna.ed.ac.uk; Wed, 1 May 91 08:22:38 GMT From: Network News Administrator <news@ed.aifh> Date: Wed, 1 May 91 08:18:32 BST Message-Id: <14691.9105010718@aifh.ed.ac.uk> Apparently-To: news Status: RO errlog.o --------- relaynews: database files for `/usr/local/lib/news/history' incomprehensible or unavailable relaynews: database files for `/usr/local/lib/news/history' incomprehensible or unavailable relaynews: database files for `/usr/local/lib/news/history' incomprehensible or unavailable ...... etc etc etc recent bad input batches: bad/673059641 bad/673060270 ...... etc etc etc Michael Keightley
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (05/02/91)
In article <1991May1.134706.23973@aifh.ed.ac.uk> mk@aifh.ed.ac.uk () writes: >Seems to get corrupted when running Cnews expire. >expire: dbzagain(history.n) failed Are you sure everything is using dbz, and nothing is left over using dbm? Confusion about which package is being used is a good way to get fearfully messed-up files. Two hints for pursuing this: (1) Any program compiled with dbz contains the string "dbz", so you can check this with "strings xxx | egrep dbz". (2) Dbz's history.dir file should always be 100% readable ASCII text. Any unprintable characters in there are a sign of trouble. -- And the bean-counter replied, | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology "beans are more important". | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry