[gnu.emacs.bug] user reports rnews problem

yamaguch%sol.usc.edu@USC.EDU (Brian Yamaguchi) (03/02/90)

pollux.usc.edu is a Sun-3/260 running SunOS 4.0.3 running this verison:
GNU Emacs 18.54.3 of Sat May 27 1989 on sargas.usc.edu (berkeley-unix)

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Date: Mon, 26 Feb 90 15:17:40 PST
From: gasser@pollux.usc.edu (Les Gasser)
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To: action@pollux.usc.edu
Subject: Gnu emacs rnews problem

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Return-Path: <gasser@pollux.usc.edu>
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 90 15:17:40 PST
From: gasser@pollux.usc.edu (Les Gasser)
To: action@pollux.usc.edu
Subject: Gnu emacs rnews problem


I read news using gnu rnews. When I'm through (read all the news in
all subscribed-to newsgroups) I "quit" rnews, and there is a message
"updating .newsrc file..." in the minibuffer. Fine.  But next time I
rnews, the SAME news gets read, i.e. .newsrc has NOT been updated.

[This is extremely frustrating, especially in that I cannot, in gnu,
mark a collection of messages as read (I can do this using unix
rn)---I have to go through and read them one at a time again.]

Another strange manifestation: What does change in a .newsrc? I read
my news this AM at about 11:25 - here's what a ls -l of .newsrc now,
at 3:20 PM, returns:

-rw-r--r--  1 gasser        716 Feb 26 11:28 .newsrc

So .newsrc DID get updated, somehow... but I still get the same news
now when I try to read it (ca. 3;30 PM.) One newsgroup in particluar
to which this happens is usc.general; another is comp.ai.

I consider this (the failure to actually update .newsrc) a bug, not a
feature.

-- Les

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Brian