steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett) (11/18/88)
Has anyone had any problems with a history file in 2.11.14 that decides to disappear occasionally??? We've had this problem occur enough times that I am sure it's not related to running out of disk space or other hardware-related problems. When this happens, I get a message (as news) saying something to the effect of: "There was a problem with the history file. It has been fixed." However, after that, we're back to a zero-sized history file (which will then grow normally, but we end up with duplicate articles for a while due to lack of history). I've looked all around the system for things that might be happening that coincide with the history file shrinking, but there doesn't seem to be any pattern. Any ideas?? Solutions?? Thanks, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Steve DeJarnett | Smart Mailers -> steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU | | Computer Systems Lab | Dumb Mailers -> ..!ucbvax!voder!polyslo!steve | | Cal Poly State Univ. |------------------------------------------------| | San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 | BITNET = Because Idiots Type NETwork | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jbayer@ispi.UUCP (Jonathan Bayer) (11/19/88)
In article <5849@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>, steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett) writes: > > Has anyone had any problems with a history file in 2.11.14 that decides > to disappear occasionally??? We've had this problem occur enough times that I > am sure it's not related to running out of disk space or other hardware-related > problems. When this happens, I get a message (as news) saying something to the > effect of: > > "There was a problem with the history file. It has been fixed." We had a problem like this a while ago. It turned out that we were running 2 expires at the same time, which got both of them very confused and made the history file disappear occasionally. Jonathan Bayer Intelligent Software Products, Inc.
nagel@paris.ics.uci.edu (Mark Nagel) (11/20/88)
In article <264@ispi.UUCP>, jbayer@ispi (Jonathan Bayer) writes: |In article <5849@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>, steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett) writes: |> |> Has anyone had any problems with a history file in 2.11.14 |> that decides to disappear occasionally??? We've had this problem |> occur enough times that I am sure it's not related to running out |> of disk space or other hardware-related problems. When this |> happens, I get a message (as news) saying something to the effect |> of: |> |> "There was a problem with the history file. It has been fixed." | |We had a problem like this a while ago. It turned out that we were |running 2 expires at the same time, which got both of them very |confused and made the history file disappear occasionally. As did we, but we lost our *active* file. It turns out to be some kind of bug in the SunOS 4.0 cron that caused the nightly script to execute twice simultaneously. I worked around it by adding a "script lock" to the nightly script. I.e., I just had the script check for the existence of a lock file in /tmp and if present, exit. If not, create it and go on. Haven't had any problems since. Mark D. Nagel UC Irvine - Dept of Info and Comp Sci | The probability of someone nagel@ics.uci.edu (ARPA) | watching you is proportional to {sdcsvax|ucbvax}!ucivax!nagel (UUCP) | the stupidity of your action.
dlm@cuuxb.ATT.COM (Netnews Administrator) (11/22/88)
In article <5849@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett) writes: > > Has anyone had any problems with a history file in 2.11.14 that decides >to disappear occasionally??? We've had this problem occur enough times that I >am sure it's not related to running out of disk space or other hardware-related >problems. When this happens, I get a message (as news) saying something to the >effect of: > > "There was a problem with the history file. It has been fixed." > >However, after that, we're back to a zero-sized history file (which will then >grow normally, but we end up with duplicate articles for a while due to lack of >history). I've looked all around the system for things that might be happening >that coincide with the history file shrinking, but there doesn't seem to be >any pattern. > > Any ideas?? Solutions?? > As someone else pointed out multiple expires will cause it. Also running one expire followed by another. Remember that every expire exits by running a rnews -U in the backgroud. Running an expire after that will trash either the active file and/or the history file. The last time it happended I managed to reclaim an active file from some where that gave me the news groups and moderation but had article id's sl;ightly off. [Alright, once a week I save a copy as /usenet/lib/oactive.] Then run the following script, adapted for your system: [This is UNIX System V for the 3B20]. ----- cut ----- here --------- . /etc/TIMEZONE # set TZ just incase PATH=:/bin:/usr/bin:/local/bin:/usenet/bin:/usenet/lib:.: # for progs cd /usenet/lib #where we hide the history and active file # date >> expire.log #logs expires echo "/usenet/lib/expire -v -u -r -e 999 -E 999 ">>expire.log setpgrp nohup /usenet/lib/expire -v -u -r -I -e 999 -E 999 >>expire.log 2>&1 & ----- cut ----- here --------- This will take about 3-6 hours depending on the size of spool. Good luck. -- =Dennis L. Mumaugh Lisle, IL ...!{att,lll-crg}!cuuxb!dlm OR cuuxb!dlm@arpa.att.com