sewilco@datapg.MN.ORG (Scot E Wilcoxon) (12/19/89)
Someone recently pointed out some truncated message-IDs. A search of my
history files showed that they contain exactly 32 characters. Interesting
number. (Sorry, all my example articles have expired here thus I don't
have any Path:s)
First, looking for truncations of that nonexistent domain ".uucp":
<1989Dec7.194028.5875@virtech.uu> 12/16/89 00:41
<1989Dec8.173356.1749@alberta.uu> 12/15/89 23:55
<1989Dec7.211333.8216@gpu.utcs.u> 12/16/89 21:44
<1989Dec3.132456.22037@contact.u> 12/15/89 18:53
Now truncations of ".com":
<1989Dec11.193312.21346@csusac.c> 12/15/89 18:26
<TADGUY.89Dec7154957@diatomite.c> 12/15/89 23:55
And truncations of ".edu":
<sZTypoW00Xo94=XEZG@andrew.cmu.e> 12/15/89 23:55
<wZU493K00UiOQ5opge@andrew.cmu.e> 12/15/89 23:55
<AZTz25K00Uka8Bt052@andrew.cmu.e> 12/15/89 23:55
Oh, and simple truncations:
<MATSC.89Dec8085240@vishnu.sics.> 12/16/89 00:41
<2101@compugen.> 12/15/89 04:08
<MATSC.89Dec6095053@vishnu.sics.> 12/15/89 18:26
<8912081415.AA12414@richter.mit.> 12/15/89 18:53
<JEFFC.89Dec6121606@bach.ncr-fc.> 12/15/89 18:56
<8912150803.AA04557@zit.cigy.> 12/15/89 18:47
<JEFFC.89Dec7095557@bach.ncr-fc.> 12/15/89 18:56
<1989Dec6.190625.17207@phri.nyu.> 12/15/89 18:56
<JEFFC.89Dec8160528@bach.ncr-fc.> 12/15/89 23:55
<MATSC.89Dec8125828@vishnu.sics.> 12/16/89 00:42
<JEFFC.89Dec7100039@bach.ncr-fc.> 12/15/89 18:56
I did find non-truncated examples of some of these, so some of these are
being posted correctly and truncated later. The two entries shorter than
32 characters might be due to posting software. The great majority of
truncations are exactly 32 chars.
--
Scot E. Wilcoxon sewilco@DataPg.MN.ORG {amdahl|hpda}!bungia!datapg!sewilco
Data Progress UNIX masts & rigging +1 612-825-2607 uunet!datapg!sewilco
I'm just reversing entropy while waiting for the Big Crunch.pcg@aber-cs.UUCP (Piercarlo Grandi) (12/23/89)
In article <24116@datapg.MN.ORG> sewilco@datapg.MN.ORG (Scot E Wilcoxon) writes:
Someone recently pointed out some truncated message-IDs. A search of my
history files showed that they contain exactly 32 characters. Interesting
number. (Sorry, all my example articles have expired here thus I don't
have any Path:s)
But all the other articles posted had some HP site in their path. Since
nobody has advanced this explanation, here is my stab in the dark: the
culprit for the various truncations *may* be Notes. If you look at headers,
it seems that many HP sites internally uses Notes instead of C or B News.
What happens to the articles seems consistent with the logic of Notes.
If it turns out that Notes has a 32 byte limit for ids or headers or
whatever (I often see truncated subjects etc...), then this hypothesis
becomes less speculative...
--
Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.ukeric@egsner.cirr.com (Eric Schnoebelen) (12/28/89)
In article <1555@aber-cs.UUCP> pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) writes: - In article <24116@datapg.MN.ORG> sewilco@datapg.MN.ORG (Scot E Wilcoxon) - writes: - - Someone recently pointed out some truncated message-IDs. A search of my - history files showed that they contain exactly 32 characters. Interesting - number. (Sorry, all my example articles have expired here thus I don't - have any Path:s) - - But all the other articles posted had some HP site in their path. Since - nobody has advanced this explanation, here is my stab in the dark: the - culprit for the various truncations *may* be Notes. If you look at headers, - it seems that many HP sites internally uses Notes instead of C or B News. - - What happens to the articles seems consistent with the logic of Notes. - If it turns out that Notes has a 32 byte limit for ids or headers or - whatever (I often see truncated subjects etc...), then this hypothesis - becomes less speculative... Very astute! Notes does have a nasty tendency to use small fixed length buffers for things such as message ids, etc. Also, the notes/news interface is rather old, and tends to be broken in strange and obscure ways. I have helped fix some of the problems with one of my neighbor sites who insists upon running notes.. (I'm trying to bring him out of the dark ages :-) -- Eric Schnoebelen eric@egsner.cirr.com schnoebe@convex.com "/bin/sh: Bourne in the USA"