Can't select new articles from large nnml group in sgnus

Can't select new articles from large nnml group in sgnus

[Per Abrahamsen]

My nnml:ding.list group has more than 4k messages.  After I have _\bgot
new mail in the group, I often can't select the new articles.
Attempting to do so gives me a `no such article' error, and marks the
articles as cancelled.  Leaving the group, reentering it, and
selecting an _\bOld message before any of the new articles solves the
problem, after that I can read the new messages. 

I can't track down the error, except that Gnus seems to think there
exist far fewer articles than there does (only ~3k).  I don't have the
problem with any other group, but then, none of the other active
groups are nearly as large as the ding group.  

Does anyone else experience anything similar?

Re: Can't select new articles from large nnml group in sgnus

[Steven L Baur]

>>>>> "Per" == Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

 (problems with a large nnml group)
Per> I can't track down the error, except that Gnus seems to think
Per> there exist far fewer articles than there does (only ~3k).  I
Per> don't have the problem with any other group, but then, none of
Per> the other active groups are nearly as large as the ding group.

Per> Does anyone else experience anything similar?

I have several nnml groups with numbers in excess of that -- the
largest being in the 5900's at the moment (2608 unexpired messages).
I haven't had any problems, but I haven't reached 4k unexpired
messages either.

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Re: Can't select new articles from large nnml group in sgnus

[Benny Amorsen]

>>>>> "PA" == Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

PA> My nnml:ding.list group has more than 4k messages.  After I have
PA> _\bgot new mail in the group, I often can't select the new
PA> articles.  Attempting to do so gives me a `no such article' error,
PA> and marks the articles as cancelled. 
[..]
PA> Does anyone else experience anything similar?

I did, but I attributed it to NFS because it coincided with general
flakiness of our file servers. At one time it happened just before the
file server that serves my home directory went down. That's why I
haven't complained earlier...

In my case it tends to be linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu that gives
trouble. That group is very large even compared with the ding group.


Benny

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Re: Can't select new articles from large nnml group in sgnus

[Samuel Tardieu]

>>>>> "Per" == Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

Per> My nnml:ding.list group has more than 4k messages.  After I have
Per> _\bgot new mail in the group, I often can't select the new
Per> articles. Attempting to do so gives me a `no such article' error,
Per> and marks the articles as cancelled.  Leaving the group,
Per> reentering it, and selecting an _\bOld message before any of the
Per> new articles solves the problem, after that I can read the new
Per> messages.

Per> I can't track down the error, except that Gnus seems to think
Per> there exist far fewer articles than there does (only ~3k).  I
Per> don't have the problem with any other group, but then, none of
Per> the other active groups are nearly as large as the ding group.

Per> Does anyone else experience anything similar?

I'm glad you ask. I've reported this to Lars several times already,
but he couldn't find anything wrong because I was also unable to find
the place of the bug !

It seems to happen randomly: sometimes, nnml-article-file-alist
doesn't contain all the file names, but only the first part. I've
checked the code several times, and I couldn't see a single place
where nnml-article-file-alist fails to be initialized correctly. It
looks like the directory-files function returns a truncated result...

Usually, entering another nnml group then the wanted one corrects the
bug (it forces nnml-article-file-alist to be re-read).

This bug has been present for several months, and is quite
annoying... 

  Sam
-- 
"La cervelle des petits enfants, ca doit avoir comme un petit gout de noisette"
                                                       Charles Baudelaire

Re: Can't select new articles from large nnml group in sgnus

[Per Abrahamsen]

>>>>> "ST" == Samuel Tardieu <sam@inf.enst.fr> writes:

ST> It
ST> looks like the directory-files function returns a truncated result...

That is what I found too, but calling `directory-files' manually gave
me the right numbers.

You are using XEmacs, and I'm using Emacs so it is not an emacs
specific bug.

Someone else mentioned NFS as a possible source of the problem.  He
was using Linux.  I'm also using NFS between two Solaris 2.5 hosts.
How about you?

Re: Can't select new articles from large nnml group in sgnus

[Benny Amorsen]

>>>>> "PA" == Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

PA> Someone else mentioned NFS as a possible source of the problem.
PA> He was using Linux.  I'm also using NFS between two Solaris 2.5
PA> hosts.  How about you?

I am probably the one you refer to. Actually I read linux-kernel on a
sparc-sun-solaris2.4 box... The NFS server is a mips-sgi-irix5.2
machine.

Maybe I should test it on our Irix clients. It's hard to reproduce,
though, and they're slow compared to our Solaris boxes.


Benny

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Re: Can't select new articles from large nnml group in sgnus

[Samuel Tardieu]

>>>>> "Per" == Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

Per> Someone else mentioned NFS as a possible source of the problem.
Per> He was using Linux.  I'm also using NFS between two Solaris 2.5
Per> hosts. How about you?

NFS :-( Between SunOS 4.1.3 (Server) and Solaris 2.5 (Client)... What
the hell can we do to correct this problem ? :/

  Sam
-- 
"La cervelle des petits enfants, ca doit avoir comme un petit gout de noisette"
                                                       Charles Baudelaire

Re: Can't select new articles from large nnml group in sgnus

[Sten Drescher]

>>>>> Benny Amorsen writes:

>>>>> "PA" == Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:
PA> Someone else mentioned NFS as a possible source of the problem.
PA> He was using Linux.  I'm also using NFS between two Solaris 2.5
PA> hosts.  How about you?

BA> I am probably the one you refer to. Actually I read linux-kernel
BA> on a sparc-sun-solaris2.4 box... The NFS server is a
BA> mips-sgi-irix5.2 machine.

	Irix 5.2 is evil.  Irix NFS is evil.  Put them together, you
almost approach the depths of Win95. (; I had NFS-related problems in
procmail using irix-to-irix mounts.  If you have any option at all,
put the nnml directories on the Solaris box.

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