jpr@jpradley.jpr.com (Jean-Pierre Radley) (03/14/91)
I've gotten this message in mail three days in a row: expire problems: expire: `'r\022r\036' is not a directory (No such file or directory) Is it a corrupt line in the history file? What's the fastest cure? I assume that editing a 6 MB history file (which my 'vi' wouldn't handle anyways) is not the first thing I should try. Just rebuild the history file? Jean-Pierre Radley NYC Public Unix jpr@jpradley.jpr.com CIS: 72160,1341
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (03/16/91)
In article <1991Mar14.053233.26712@jpradley.jpr.com> jpr@jpradley.jpr.com (Jean-Pierre Radley) writes: >I've gotten this message in mail three days in a row: > > expire problems: > expire: `'r\022r\036' is not a directory (No such file or directory) > >Is it a corrupt line in the history file? No, it's a corrupt line in your explist file. That message comes out when an archiving directory, specified either in explist or in the -a option, cannot be found. -- "But this *is* the simplified version | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology for the general public." -S. Harris | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) (03/20/91)
>> expire problems: >> expire: `'r\022r\036' is not a directory (No such file or directory) henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >[...]That message comes out when >an archiving directory, specified either in explist or in the -a option, >cannot be found. I've seen a couple of messages from Henry to this effect -- "message A means problem B." It seems like these things could be added to the error messages. I realize that it would make things pretty verbose, but sometimes it's REALLY HARD to grep through the source to find the error message text, then go to that place and understand what conditions lead to the error. This is kind of a general comment about error messages, I guess -- how do you explain to the user just what conditions might have lead up to this error being detected? When isn't it worth it? ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (03/21/91)
In article <2861@atari.UUCP> apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes: >I've seen a couple of messages from Henry to this effect -- "message A means >problem B." > >It seems like these things could be added to the error messages. I realize >that it would make things pretty verbose... Unfortunately, you can end up with each error message being a paragraph long, and it *still* isn't as explicit as you'd like. There is also a very serious problem with people treating a best guess as Holy Writ and never looking for any other cause. While the messages could stand improving in a number of places, the real solution to this is a Troubleshooting Guide for the novices. -- "[Some people] positively *wish* to | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology believe ill of the modern world."-R.Peto| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry