gnus-change-server problems?

gnus-change-server problems?

[Chris Halverson]

Due to the flaky-ness of my current news server, I wanted to change to
another one I have access to. After I RTFM, I tried to use
gnus-change-server to no avail. I enter "nntp" as the method, and the
new news server name for the next prompt. It chugs away for a bit,
then dies. The backtrace is below. It seems to go along fine until it
hits a group that's active, then it dies. Is there anything I should
be aware of using this, or is there another way I can save my
(un)subscribed groups and move to a new server? Thanks!


Signaling: (wrong-type-argument number-or-marker-p nil)
  <(nil nil)
  sort((nil) <)
  gnus-move-group-to-server(("alt.collecting.pens-pencils" 3 ((1 . 9531)) ((save 9486) (expire 8963 ... 9126 9130 9133 9142 9342 ... ...) (reply 9300 9486 9513))) (nntp "news.mr.net") (nntp "news.uslink.net"))
  #<compiled-function (from "gnus-move.elc") (info from-server to-server) "...(74)" [gnus-move-group-to-server info from-server to-server gnus-info-set-entry 4 group gnus-group-prefixed-name gname string-match "^[^:]+:" 0 nil new-name intern gnus-newsrc-hashtb intern-soft] 4 "Move the group on the current line from FROM-SERVER to TO-SERVER." (let (...) (list info ... ...))>(("alt.collecting.pens-pencils" 3 ((1 . 9531)) ((save 9486) (expire 8963 ... 9126 9130 9133 9142 9342 ... ...) (reply 9300 9486 9513))) (nntp "news.mr.net") (nntp "news.uslink.net"))
  call-interactively(gnus-group-move-group-to-server)
  command-execute(gnus-group-move-group-to-server t)
  execute-extended-command(nil)
  call-interactively(execute-extended-command)

Chris

-- 
Chris D. Halverson                         Complete Internet Solutions
PGP mail accepted, finger for public key   http://www.CompleteIS.com/~cdh/

Re: gnus-change-server problems?

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Chris Halverson <cdh@CompleteIS.com> writes:

> Signaling: (wrong-type-argument number-or-marker-p nil)
>   <(nil nil)
>   sort((nil) <)

Hm.

(sort '(nil) '<)
=> (nil)

(sort nil '<)
=> nil

This is with Emacs 19.34.  Is this illegal under XEmacs?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen

Re: gnus-change-server problems?

[Steven L Baur]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Chris Halverson <cdh@CompleteIS.com> writes:
>> Signaling: (wrong-type-argument number-or-marker-p nil)
>> <(nil nil)
>> sort((nil) <)

> Hm.

> (sort '(nil) '<)
> => (nil)

> (sort nil '<)
> => nil

> This is with Emacs 19.34.  Is this illegal under XEmacs?

Not as far as I can tell (tested against 19.15 and 20.3beta).  If it
is being considered illegal, it's an XEmacs bug.
-- 
steve@calag.com baur
Unsolicited commercial e-mail will be billed at $250/message.

Re: gnus-change-server problems?

[Hrvoje Niksic]

Steven L Baur <steve@xemacs.org> writes:

> > This is with Emacs 19.34.  Is this illegal under XEmacs?
> 
> Not as far as I can tell (tested against 19.15 and 20.3beta).

It's OK in 20.2, too.

-- 
Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr> | Student at FER Zagreb, Croatia
--------------------------------+--------------------------------
Good pings come in small packets.

Re: gnus-change-server problems?

[Chris Halverson]

Steven L Baur <steve@xemacs.org> writes:

> > This is with Emacs 19.34.  Is this illegal under XEmacs?
> 
> Not as far as I can tell (tested against 19.15 and 20.3beta).  If it
> is being considered illegal, it's an XEmacs bug.

Hmm...Yes, I guess I forgot to add that I'm using XEmacs 19.15 and
Gnus 5.4.55 (although it was in a header line).

Anyway...Is there anything I can do about it, or do I just put up w/
flaky news and wait for a new version of XEmacs?

Chris

-- 
Chris D. Halverson                         Complete Internet Solutions
PGP mail accepted, finger for public key   http://www.CompleteIS.com/~cdh/

Re: gnus-change-server problems?

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Chris Halverson <cdh@CompleteIS.com> writes:

> Hmm...Yes, I guess I forgot to add that I'm using XEmacs 19.15 and
> Gnus 5.4.55 (although it was in a header line).
> 
> Anyway...Is there anything I can do about it, or do I just put up w/
> flaky news and wait for a new version of XEmacs?

No, we're trying to determine what goes wrong.

(sort '(nil) '<)

Put point after the closing paren.  Press `C-x C-e'.  Does your XEmacs
say "beep" or "(nil)"?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen

Re: gnus-change-server problems?

[Chris Halverson]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> No, we're trying to determine what goes wrong.
> 
> (sort '(nil) '<)
> 
> Put point after the closing paren.  Press `C-x C-e'.  Does your XEmacs
> say "beep" or "(nil)"?

(nil)

BTW, I talked to the news admin (a former co-worker of mine) and told
him about my problem. He is working on the problem. It was/is a bug in
his version of INN (Scott Fritchie, he's writing a version of INN that
stores the articles in one huge "spool" file and it is cyclic in the
sense that once EOF is hit it starts at the begining again). The
problem is that his version assigns the article numbers instead of
INN, this causes the active file to get out of whack. He wrote a
process that will synch them up and he promised me he will run it more
often.

Thanks again for the help!

Chris

-- 
Chris D. Halverson                         Complete Internet Solutions
PGP mail accepted, finger for public key   http://www.CompleteIS.com/~cdh/

Re: gnus-change-server problems?

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Chris Halverson <cdh@CompleteIS.com> writes:

> > (sort '(nil) '<)
> > 
> > Put point after the closing paren.  Press `C-x C-e'.  Does your XEmacs
> > say "beep" or "(nil)"?
> 
> (nil)

But then I don't understand the backtrace you posted:

Signaling: (wrong-type-argument number-or-marker-p nil)
  <(nil nil)
  sort((nil) <)
  gnus-move-group-to-server(("alt.collecting.pens-pencils" 3 ((1 . 9531)) ((save 9486) (expire 8963 ... 9126 9130 9133 9142 9342 ... ...) (reply 9300 9486 9513))) (nntp "news.mr.net") (nntp "news.uslink.net"))

Am I misreading this backtrace?  Doesn't it say that `(sort '(nil) '<)' 
bugs out?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen

Re: gnus-change-server problems?

[Steven L Baur]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Chris Halverson <cdh@CompleteIS.com> writes:
>> > (sort '(nil) '<)
>> > 
>> > Put point after the closing paren.  Press `C-x C-e'.  Does your XEmacs
>> > say "beep" or "(nil)"?
>> 
>> (nil)

> But then I don't understand the backtrace you posted:

> Signaling: (wrong-type-argument number-or-marker-p nil)
>   <(nil nil)
>   sort((nil) <)
>   gnus-move-group-to-server(("alt.collecting.pens-pencils" 3 ((1 . 9531)) ((save 9486) (expire 8963 ... 9126 9130 9133 9142 9342 ... ...) (reply 9300 9486 9513))) (nntp "news.mr.net") (nntp "news.uslink.net"))

> Am I misreading this backtrace?  Doesn't it say that `(sort '(nil) '<)' 
> bugs out?

That's how I read it too.  On the other hand, the sort subr hasn't
been changed in a long time (the code dates from the Lucid days), and
it should be impossible to hit any code where a comparison is done
when it is handed a nil list.  (< nil nil) definitely produces the
same wrong-type-argument error message shown in the backtrace.

Chris, can you possibly manage to get a C backtrace of this error?

Note that the code that catches degenerate lists in XEmacs' list_sort
is identical to the in-line code in Emacs 19.34+ sort.

DEFUN ("sort", Fsort, 2, 2, 0, /*
Sort LIST, stably, comparing elements using PREDICATE.
Returns the sorted list.  LIST is modified by side effects.
PREDICATE is called with two elements of LIST, and should return T
if the first element is \"less\" than the second.
*/
       (list, pred))
{
  return list_sort (list, pred, merge_pred_function);
}

Lisp_Object
list_sort (Lisp_Object list,
           Lisp_Object lisp_arg, 
           int (*pred_fn) (Lisp_Object, Lisp_Object,
                           Lisp_Object lisp_arg))
{
  Lisp_Object front, back;
  Lisp_Object len, tem;
  struct gcpro gcpro1, gcpro2, gcpro3;
  int length;

  front = list;
  len = Flength (list);
  length = XINT (len);
  if (length < 2)
    return list;            <====== A nil list should be caught here.
  ...
-- 
steve@calag.com baur
Unsolicited commercial e-mail will be billed at $250/message.