* Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? @ 2000-04-06 14:17 Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] 2000-04-20 0:17 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 0 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread From: Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] @ 2000-04-06 14:17 UTC (permalink / raw) A FAQ around here from new Gnus users is that, when they start Gnus from scratch, it reads >100Megabytes from the nntp server for hours, and then they give up. I've usually told people to fiddle with `gnus-read-active-file' and `gnus-check-new-newsgroups', but they tell me it doesn't help. The only remote reference I could find in the ding archives (what's a good search keyword for this?) is: http://www.gnus.org/list-archives/ding/199708/msg00087.html which isn't very helpful. Can anyone help? -- Cheers =8-} Mike Friede, Völkerverständigung und überhaupt blabla ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? 2000-04-06 14:17 Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] @ 2000-04-20 0:17 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 2000-04-21 9:57 ` Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] 0 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen @ 2000-04-20 0:17 UTC (permalink / raw) sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor]) writes: > A FAQ around here from new Gnus users is that, when they start Gnus > from scratch, it reads >100Megabytes from the nntp server for hours, > and then they give up. I've usually told people to fiddle with > > `gnus-read-active-file' and `gnus-check-new-newsgroups', > > but they tell me it doesn't help. If `gnus-read-active-file' is `some' (which is the default), Gnus shouldn't be reading megs of stuff on startup... -- (domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.) larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? 2000-04-20 0:17 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen @ 2000-04-21 9:57 ` Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] 2000-04-21 11:37 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 2000-04-23 13:05 ` Markus Leypold 0 siblings, 2 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] @ 2000-04-21 9:57 UTC (permalink / raw) >>>>> "Lars" == Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes: Lars> sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor]) writes: >> A FAQ around here from new Gnus users is that, when they start Gnus >> from scratch, it reads >100Megabytes from the nntp server for hours, >> and then they give up. I've usually told people to fiddle with >> >> `gnus-read-active-file' and `gnus-check-new-newsgroups', >> >> but they tell me it doesn't help. Lars> If `gnus-read-active-file' is `some' (which is the default), Gnus Lars> shouldn't be reading megs of stuff on startup... Actually, the problem has turned out to be something else entirely. Because of some administrative fuckup, my co-worker's machine didn't have permissions to use the NNTP server in question. The server would send: 480 Authentication required for command ... but Gnus would just plod on, and fill up Emacs with zillions of copies of this message. I haven't studied the problem in detail, which is why I haven't followed up. -- Cheers =8-} Mike Friede, Völkerverständigung und überhaupt blabla ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? 2000-04-21 9:57 ` Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] @ 2000-04-21 11:37 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 2000-04-23 13:05 ` Markus Leypold 1 sibling, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen @ 2000-04-21 11:37 UTC (permalink / raw) sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor]) writes: > The server would send: > > 480 Authentication required for command > > ... but Gnus would just plod on, and fill up Emacs with zillions of > copies of this message. I haven't studied the problem in detail, > which is why I haven't followed up. That sounds like nntp.el isn't checking for error messages when trying to do the `some' active file retrieval. Could you try to set `nntp-record-commands' to t and see what commands Gnus are sending out when it does this? -- (domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.) larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? 2000-04-21 9:57 ` Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] 2000-04-21 11:37 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen @ 2000-04-23 13:05 ` Markus Leypold 2000-04-23 19:10 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 2000-04-24 0:49 ` Russ Allbery 1 sibling, 2 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: Markus Leypold @ 2000-04-23 13:05 UTC (permalink / raw) Cc: ding > > Lars> sperber@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor]) writes: > > >> A FAQ around here from new Gnus users is that, when they start Gnus > >> from scratch, it reads >100Megabytes from the nntp server for hours, > >> and then they give up. I've usually told people to fiddle with > >> > >> `gnus-read-active-file' and `gnus-check-new-newsgroups', > >> > >> but they tell me it doesn't help. > > Lars> If `gnus-read-active-file' is `some' (which is the default), Gnus > Lars> shouldn't be reading megs of stuff on startup... > > Actually, the problem has turned out to be something else entirely. > Because of some administrative fuckup, my co-worker's machine didn't > have permissions to use the NNTP server in question. The server would > send: > > 480 Authentication required for command > > ... but Gnus would just plod on, and fill up Emacs with zillions of > copies of this message. I haven't studied the problem in detail, > which is why I haven't followed up. Hello Friends, I'm the co-worker in question. Thanks to Mike S for sending the original bug report (or something to that effect). I just would like to fill in some details: * IP->name DNS Lookup for my machine was not working if done by the news server. * The news server (for some obscure reason) had been set up in a way to refuse *some* commands with '480 Authentication required for command'. I could say 'help' but not 'list active' to the server (tried it with telnet). * In this situation Gnus is asking me actually for a password and a username and presumably also authenticates (or tries to). But then it does not recognize, that this fails and loops, reading 150Megs of 'Authentication required for command' from the server. > A comment about the last point: It seems to me, that this means, that Gnus is sending commands to the server for every line of 'Authentication required for command' which is returned. So the problem could not be just a single attempt to 'list active'. * Setting `gnus-read-active-file' to nil did not help. This was my original approach. This might be, because the loop in question does not occur in reading the the active file but somewhere else (see comment above) but I also had the impression when skimming through the relevant code, that `gnus-read-active-file' doesn't work any more. * There are news servers, that react differently (You have no permission to talk, or something similar) to a machine with incomplete DNS entries. Gnus can handle this situation. * For me, this problem is 100% reproducible with this news server. I just remove part of the DNS entries for my client machine and voila: Gnus is running Amok. Regards -- Markus ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? 2000-04-23 13:05 ` Markus Leypold @ 2000-04-23 19:10 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 2000-04-24 0:49 ` Russ Allbery 1 sibling, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen @ 2000-04-23 19:10 UTC (permalink / raw) Markus Leypold <leypold@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes: > > A comment about the last point: It seems to me, that this means, > that Gnus is sending commands to the server for every line of > 'Authentication required for command' which is returned. So the > problem could not be just a single attempt to 'list active'. Try setting `nntp-record-commands', run Gnus and see what ends up in the *nntp-log* buffer. -- (domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.) larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? 2000-04-23 13:05 ` Markus Leypold 2000-04-23 19:10 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen @ 2000-04-24 0:49 ` Russ Allbery 2000-04-25 8:23 ` Markus Leypold 1 sibling, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread From: Russ Allbery @ 2000-04-24 0:49 UTC (permalink / raw) Markus Leypold <leypold@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes: > * The news server (for some obscure reason) had been set up in a way > to refuse *some* commands with '480 Authentication required for > command'. I could say 'help' but not 'list active' to the server > (tried it with telnet). This is, incidentally, normal, at least in my experience for password-required news servers. It can even go farther than that, allowing you to read some newsgroups but require authentication to read other ones or to post. News readers really have to be prepared to handle 480 responses at almost any point in the NNTP dialog. -- Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/> ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? 2000-04-24 0:49 ` Russ Allbery @ 2000-04-25 8:23 ` Markus Leypold 0 siblings, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: Markus Leypold @ 2000-04-25 8:23 UTC (permalink / raw) Cc: ding > Delivered-To: leypold@lesbains.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de > From: Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu> > Markus Leypold <leypold@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes: > > > * The news server (for some obscure reason) had been set up in a way > > to refuse *some* commands with '480 Authentication required for > > command'. I could say 'help' but not 'list active' to the server > > (tried it with telnet). > > This is, incidentally, normal, at least in my experience for > password-required news servers. It can even go farther than that, Certainly. This I know. But the catch is that gnus doesn't recognize nor handle this situation correctly. Furthermore I wanted to hint, that in 'nature' there seem to occur 2 different reactions of newsservers to clients whose name they cannot get from the DNS: Some answer 'You have no permission to talk', and this situation IS handled OK by Gnus. > allowing you to read some newsgroups but require authentication to read > other ones or to post. Makes sense. Local Newsgroups just for one working group or stuff like that. > > News readers really have to be prepared to handle 480 responses at almost > any point in the NNTP dialog. Yup. Regards -- Markus > > -- > Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/> > > ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2000-04-25 8:23 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 8+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2000-04-06 14:17 Gnus reads megabytes from NNTP on startup? Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] 2000-04-20 0:17 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 2000-04-21 9:57 ` Michael Sperber [Mr. Preprocessor] 2000-04-21 11:37 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 2000-04-23 13:05 ` Markus Leypold 2000-04-23 19:10 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen 2000-04-24 0:49 ` Russ Allbery 2000-04-25 8:23 ` Markus Leypold
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