[net.news] ? how to keep .newsrc clean ?

werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (02/21/84)

RRRaaaiiiddd .... (anyone seen the dead bug yet?)

can anyone explain what causes duplication entries for news-groups in file
.newsrc ??  how to avoid it ?   and why sorting the file in alfabetical
order seems to contribute to the duplication?  what are the side-effects
and how best fix it?  (I assume that this is of general interest and worth
posting here and, maybe, elsewhere.

Apologies for my ignorance to all .....		werner @ ut-ngp

whp@cbnap.UUCP (02/26/84)

While we're at it, does anyone know what causes duplicate entries in
the active file?  We get several of these, which is one reason we see
some mail items twice (I remember someone complaining about this before;
perhaps the reason for this is like us, duplicate entries in the active
file).
One good way to find all duplicate entries in either a .newsrc or an
active file is to run the file through sort.  This helps clean up the
files, but doesn't prevent the system from creating more duplicates.

dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (02/26/84)

Sorting the file in alphabetical order will just muck things up.
The order is taken from /usr/lib/news/active, and the .newsrc is
made to fit that order. If you change it you're just asking for trouble.
(This goes for 2.10 and the like. 2.11 may be different, I don't know.)

Dave Sherman
-- 
 {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave

neal@denelcor.UUCP (Neal Weidenhofer) (03/09/84)

**************************************************************************

>One good way to find all duplicate entries in either a .newsrc or an
>active file is to run the file through sort.  This helps clean up the
>files, but doesn't prevent the system from creating more duplicates.

	In fact, I believe that it encourages the system to create more
duplicates.  I tried sorting mine so that I could read it and I discovered
that if an item wasn't where readnews expected it, it created a new one
rather than look at the rest of the file.

	Can anyone who knows readnews correct or augment my info?

			Regards,
				Neal Weidenhofer
				Denelcor, Inc.
				<hao|csu-cs|brl-bmd>!denelcor!neal