[gnu.emacs.gnus] gnus bug?

glass@acsdev.acsdev.uucp (Adam Glass) (12/06/89)

Enviornment: AT&T 3b2 1000/60, Emacs 18.55, local news spool (not remotely mounted),B news 2.11.17
version: GNUS 3.11

Behavior: some newsgroups seem to go bad.  Gnus says there are messages in
the group.  The message is actually there too.  When you hit '=' to get a
list of messages or just try to read the first one you get the following
message in the minibuffer:
	Retrieving Newsgroup: comp.compilers
	Symbol's Value as variable is void: From:


Here is the one message in a newsgroup with this problem: 

Path: acsdev!pacbell!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!spdcc!ima!esegue!compilers-sender
From: parke@star.enet.dec.com
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Subject: Re: Info about generators of LR(k) parsers (Specifically S/SL)
Keywords: LR(k) parsing, parser generator, yacc
Message-ID: <1989Nov30.042240.20477@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us>
Date: 30 Nov 89 04:22:40 GMT
References: <727@theseas>
Sender: compilers-sender@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: parke@star.enet.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corp.
Lines: 20
Approved: compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us

In article <727@theseas>, illusion@theseas (Charalambos N. ATHANASSIOU) writes:
> 	Some time ago there was a posting about an LR(k) parser
> generator named S/SL. Does anyone have more information about this or
> a similar thing (especially e-mail addresses).

As far as I know S/SL is stands for SYNTAX and SEMANTICS
Language and was developed as a language for implementing
compilers from Syntax Graphs, ala the PASCAL report.

It was developed (I believe) at CSRG at the University of Toronto
and there are several reports written about it and a Pascal
compiler implemented with it.  There was an article published in
one of the ACM publications (I think SIGPLAN) 6 or so years ago
also.

			Bill
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--------
end included message

if you have any other questions, mail me or post.
 
later,
ag
--
Adam Glass			UUCP: {sun|ames}!pacbell!acsdev!glass
ACS Network Systems		Internet: glass@ocf.berkeley.edu
System Administrator		"Reality is perception. Perception is reality"

msb@ho5cad.ATT.COM (Mike Balenger) (12/11/89)

In article <GLASS.89Dec6124315@acsdev.acsdev.uucp> glass@acsdev.acsdev.uucp (Adam Glass) writes:

> Behavior: some newsgroups seem to go bad.  Gnus says there are messages in
> the group.  The message is actually there too.  When you hit '=' to get a
> list of messages or just try to read the first one you get the following
> message in the minibuffer:
>	   Retrieving Newsgroup: comp.compilers
>          Symbol's Value as variable is void: From:

[ bad article deleted ]

Your problem has to do with the news group name of the article you
included and with a 14 character file name restriction on SysV.
Putting the following line with your other gnus customization (.emacs
or elsewhere) will help:

(setq gnus-use-long-file-name   nil)	;; default it non-nil

Info node:
================================================================
gnus-use-long-file-name's value is nil

Documentation:
*Non-nil means that a newsgroup name is used as a default file name
to save articles to. If it's nil, the directory form of a newsgroup is
used instead.
================================================================
Undocumentation:
	It gets used in gnus-apply-kill-file function, too.
================================================================

When you try to read a newsgroup, gnus tries to apply KILL hooks from
kill files "$HOME/News/<news-group-name>.KILL".  When you try to save
an article from a newsgroup, gnus tries to save it in
"$HOME/News/<news-group-name>".

If gnus-use-long-file-name is non-nil, <news-group-name> looks like
"comp.compilers", else it looks like "comp/compilers".  The latter
will never bite you since there seems to be a maximum of 14 characters
between punctuation in news group names.

Since you have told gnus to use long names, but the OS cannot oblige,
you got unlucky when "$HOME/News/comp.compilers.KILL" was truncated to
14 characters ("$HOME/News/comp.compilers") and assumed to be a kill
file.

This would only bite you if the length of the newsgroup is 14+
characters, else the truncated name would not exist.  (e.g.
"gnu.emacs.KILL" is less than 14 and doesn't conflict with
"gnu.emacs", "att.workplace.KILL" truncates to "att.workplace." but
will not collide not the default save file of "att.workplace".,
"news.announce.important.KILL" truncates to "news.announce.", and
collides with the save file name).

My guess is that you just learned how to save an article from your
favorite news group, then your favorite news group effectively got
clobbered.  That's what happened to me for "gnu.emacs.gnus".  The
first word in the file is "From", hence the error message.  

Make the variable change, and the problem will go away.  If you'd like
to append to your current save files, you will have to move them,
since they will no longer be found as save files nor as kill files.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
<cute quote>            Michael S. Balenger             (201) 949-8789
<cute disclaimer>       AT&T Bell Labs
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att!ho5cad!msb          Holmdel, NJ   07733

mac@rhea.ardent.com (Mike McNamara) (12/13/89)

	I think what is happening is that you've saved some articles
in the default place gnus suggests 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Save article in Unix mail file: (default gnu.emacs.gnus) ~/News/[]

	When you later try to read this news group, gnus opens the
saved Artidle file as a KILL file!!!

	This is just suposition; however, I no longer *ever* save
articles where gnus suggests; and I've moved all previously saved
articles to other names, and the problem no longer occurs.

--
Michael McNamara	(St)ardent, Inc.		mac@ardent.com