[news.software.b] What to do with bad Cnews batches ?

mjr@decuac.dec.com (Marcus J. Ranum) (09/18/90)

	What's the best way to deal with the odd bad batch ? Do I run it
through [what *DO* I run it through?] and hope for the best ? Do I pitch
it ?

mjr. 
-- 
Courage is the willingness of a man to stand up for his beliefs in the face
of great odds. Chutzpah is doing the same thing wearing a Mickey Mouse hat.

henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (09/19/90)

In article <1990Sep18.043244.2661@decuac.dec.com> mjr@decuac.dec.com (Marcus J. Ranum) writes:
>	What's the best way to deal with the odd bad batch ? Do I run it
>through [what *DO* I run it through?] and hope for the best ? Do I pitch
>it ?

In general, the answer is "pitch it".  Mostly a batch goes in "bad"
because of an improper control message; this probably shouldn't cause
that, actually, and some consideration will be given to fixing that.
The other major reason is that the batch is badly corrupted and relaynews
can't make head nor tail of it.  It may be possible to repair the batch
by hand, but more likely it's just plain trash.  Batches go into "bad"
more for diagnosis than for cure.  If you're not hot on finding out
exactly what went bad -- usually it's nothing interesting -- just wait
for the housekeeping stuff to throw them out, or get rid of them yourself.
-- 
TCP/IP: handling tomorrow's loads today| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
OSI: handling yesterday's loads someday|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry