SONNEVELD@HLSDNL5.BITNET (R.E. Sonneveld, PTT Research, The Netherlands, +31 70 332 5362) (02/07/90)
Hello, all
In addition to the remarks Geoff made:
> >Well, ANU News 5.9c finally got done updating, with 18360 blocks for the
> >NEWS.ITEMS file and 111 blocks for NEWS.GROUPS. Most everything seems to
> >work, but I am puzzled by multiple "-- Title not obtained --" messages where
> >subject lines usually are located. None of these messages can be reached fro
m
> >the UNIX server, and I checked several of them again 'rn' on the UNIX machine
> >to see whether they didn't have titles. Is this an artifact I'll have to
> >live with? Or is something still not quite "right" about the whole setup?
>
> This is caused by probably a link which is not totally reliable.
>
> NEWS firstly checks the remote server using a NEWNEWS command to pull over the
> identifiers of all items on the remote system. It then collects these
> identifiers and adds them to the local database with a "title not obtained"
> subject line.
>
> It then consults the server in a second pass and using the XHDR command (or
> HEAD if XHDR is not supported) to get the subject line, etc.
>
> Even if this breaks, the first user who actually collects the item (a read)
> should cause the entry to be updated with the correct information.
>
> I will relook at the code and see if there are outstanding problems.
>
> Geoff
the patchlevel of NNTP on the remote Unix system may be of importance. Our Unix
server upgraded from NNTP level 1.5.6 to NNTP level 1.5.7. From that moment on,
the NNTP conversation between the (ANU-NEWS) NNTP client and the Unix server,
failed. We got the same "-- Title not obtained --" messages. Trying to read the
items resulted in either
o only an itemnumber line without message or
o the message "Cannot access item text"
We moved back to NNTP level 1.5.6 and everything runs fine again (sigh).
Reading an article with "-- Title not obtained --" resulted in a correct update
of the item. So, Geoff, I think the mechanism is working properly.
Rolf Sonneveld
PTT Research Neher Laboratories,
The Ne(t)herlands
E-mail: RE_Sonneveld@pttrnl.nl