small agent irritation

small agent irritation

[Harry Putnam]

This is a small gripe that comes up from time to time on my setup.
Not sure of the exact circumstances that bring this on but
occasionally I'll notice a post I want to be downloaded under agent
that has already be read for one reason or anther in `Plugged' mode.

Usually just marking it unread again with `M-u' leaving the group
going plugged and running J u on that group will do it, but
occasionally this does not work.  In the present cast the missing
message is actually in the agentized group as evidenced by
ls ~News/agent....../group/<number>

No amout of redownloading will help this... so I tried to edit
.agentview and .overview for that group.

Adding the file number to .agentview in the same way  others appear:
(16765 . t)

Adding to .overview by inserting the tabs and information as other
files have.  What looks like the normal Nov data.

file#   subject  from  date  message-id  references  charcters  lines

Only with tabs instead of spaces.
Still doesn't show up.  Even `j' with that file number won't find it.
But ls shows it to be on disk, in that group directory.

Re: small agent irritation

[ShengHuo ZHU]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> This is a small gripe that comes up from time to time on my setup.
> Not sure of the exact circumstances that bring this on but
> occasionally I'll notice a post I want to be downloaded under agent
> that has already be read for one reason or anther in `Plugged' mode.
> 
> Usually just marking it unread again with `M-u' leaving the group
> going plugged and running J u on that group will do it, but
> occasionally this does not work.  In the present cast the missing
> message is actually in the agentized group as evidenced by
> ls ~News/agent....../group/<number>

Maybe you should mark the article "to-download" (`J #') before leaving
the group.

> No amout of redownloading will help this... so I tried to edit
> .agentview and .overview for that group.
> 
> Adding the file number to .agentview in the same way  others appear:
> (16765 . t)

I believe this means the article is downloaded.

You could simply add the article into the cache (`*') instead of
downloading it later. Then, you could still read the article when
unplugged.

ShengHuo

Re: small agent irritation

[Harry Putnam]

On Sat, Sep 16, 2000 at 05:14:18PM -0400, ShengHuo ZHU wrote:
> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> 
> > This is a small gripe that comes up from time to time on my setup.
> > Not sure of the exact circumstances that bring this on but
> > occasionally I'll notice a post I want to be downloaded under agent
> > that has already be read for one reason or anther in `Plugged' mode.
> > 
> > Usually just marking it unread again with `M-u' leaving the group
> > going plugged and running J u on that group will do it, but
> > occasionally this does not work.  In the present cast the missing
> > message is actually in the agentized group as evidenced by
> > ls ~News/agent....../group/<number>
> 
> Maybe you should mark the article "to-download" (`J #') before leaving
> the group.

I guess I left that out above, but infact that was part of what I do
to down load a desired article.  No amout of checking with ` J #' will
fix it.

> 
> > No amout of redownloading will help this... so I tried to edit
> > .agentview and .overview for that group.
> > 
> > Adding the file number to .agentview in the same way  others appear:
> > (16765 . t)
> 
> I believe this means the article is downloaded.
> 
> You could simply add the article into the cache (`*') instead of
> downloading it later. Then, you could still read the article when
> unplugged.

Yes this is a possibility but seems to be a bit of overkill since then
I have the same message downloaded in two places.  What I'm after
here is how to edit .agentview and .overview for that group so that
this article shows up when unplugged.   As you've recognized, it is
already downloaded under agent directory, but does not show up in
unplugged mode.

Re: small agent irritation

[ShengHuo ZHU]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> Yes this is a possibility but seems to be a bit of overkill since
> then I have the same message downloaded in two places.  What I'm
> after here is how to edit .agentview and .overview for that group so
> that this article shows up when unplugged.  As you've recognized, it
> is already downloaded under agent directory, but does not show up in
> unplugged mode.

Is it possible that the .agentview is corrupted?  It should be a list
of cons.

Once I found the agent behaves weirdly because of a corrupted
.agentview.

ShengHuo

Re: small agent irritation

[Harry Putnam]

On Sat, Sep 16, 2000 at 06:00:31PM -0400, ShengHuo ZHU wrote:
> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> 
> > Yes this is a possibility but seems to be a bit of overkill since
> > then I have the same message downloaded in two places.  What I'm
> > after here is how to edit .agentview and .overview for that group so
> > that this article shows up when unplugged.  As you've recognized, it
> > is already downloaded under agent directory, but does not show up in
> > unplugged mode.
> 
> Is it possible that the .agentview is corrupted?  It should be a list
> of cons.

Well, I'm not sure what a `cons' is but .agentview looks like this:

=> start ((16490) (16491 . t) (16492 . t) (16493 . t) [...]
(17294 . t) (17295 . t) (17296 . t) (17297 . t)) <=end

> Once I found the agent behaves weirdly because of a corrupted
> .agentview.> 

How would one know if it were?

I haven't noticed other misbehavings so I doubt it is corrupt. The
article number in question does appear in .agentview.  (I put it
there).

Here is the section it is in. (number 16765)
(16758) (16759 . t) (16760 . t) (16761 . t) (16762 . t) (16763 . t)
(16765 . t) (16766 . t) (16767 . t)

Re: small agent irritation

[ShengHuo ZHU]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:


[...]

> I haven't noticed other misbehavings so I doubt it is corrupt. The
> article number in question does appear in .agentview.  (I put it
> there).
> 
> Here is the section it is in. (number 16765)
> (16758) (16759 . t) (16760 . t) (16761 . t) (16762 . t) (16763 . t)
> (16765 . t) (16766 . t) (16767 . t)

This look fine.  What does the group info look like? `G E' on the
group in group buffer.  Also, how about the active file
~/News/agent/nntp/news-server/agent.lib/active?

ShengHuo

Re: small agent irritation

[Harry Putnam]

ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:

> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> 
> 
> [...]
> 
> > I haven't noticed other misbehavings so I doubt it is corrupt. The
> > article number in question does appear in .agentview.  (I put it
> > there).
> > 
> > Here is the section it is in. (number 16765)
> > (16758) (16759 . t) (16760 . t) (16761 . t) (16762 . t) (16763 . t)
> > (16765 . t) (16766 . t) (16767 . t)
> 
> This look fine.  What does the group info look like? `G E' on the
> group in group buffer.  Also, how about the active file
> ~/News/agent/nntp/news-server/agent.lib/active?

The active file just seems to encompass the area that would contain
this post:

comp.os.linux.security 17304 15641 y
However this may be significant:  The file number was missing from 
~/News/agent/nntp/news-server/agent.lib/history


I've added it in there and now it shows up in the group. It may have
been something else I've done ... not sure.

`G E' no shows:
 ((1 . 17159)
  (17161 . 17298))
 ((download 17160)
  (dormant 16528 16534
	   (16537 . 16539)
	   16543 16548 16554 16560 16769)
  (reply 16584 16730 16768 17274)
  (tick
   (16575 . 16576)
   16584 16595 16601 16765 16768 16795 17272 17274
   (17285 . 17286))))

Its there in the next to last line .. 16765 ticked.

I think this is new but I didn't think to look at GE before.

Re: small agent irritation

[Christoph Rohland]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> Usually just marking it unread again with `M-u' leaving the group
> going plugged and running J u on that group will do it, but
> occasionally this does not work.  In the present cast the missing
> message is actually in the agentized group as evidenced by
> ls ~News/agent....../group/<number>

Did you select another article in between? 

I see this behaviour: when marking an article as downloadable,
downloading it and directly reselecting the same article, it does not
show up. If I select another article and then go back to this one, it
is shown.

        Christoph

Re: small agent irritation

[Harry Putnam]

On Sun, Sep 17, 2000 at 12:05:05PM +0200, Christoph Rohland wrote:
> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> 
> > Usually just marking it unread again with `M-u' leaving the group
> > going plugged and running J u on that group will do it, but
> > occasionally this does not work.  In the present cast the missing
> > message is actually in the agentized group as evidenced by
> > ls ~News/agent....../group/<number>
> 
> Did you select another article in between? 

Not directly at that moment but was in and out of the group several
times and read other new posts etc.

> 
> I see this behaviour: when marking an article as downloadable,
> downloading it and directly reselecting the same article, it does not
> show up. If I select another article and then go back to this one, it
> is shown.

I've seen this phenomena as well but don't think it was the reason for
this current instance, which seems to have been fixed by meddling with 
.agentview .overview and
~/News/agent/nntp/news0server/agent.lib/history.