Re: splitting .newsrc.eld

[Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no>]

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

> Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no> writes:
>> The smaller the file, the shorter time it needs to complete a write,
>> the shorter the risk for corruption.

> Yes, but if you have a problem with files getting corrupted while
> writing, something very wrong is going on on your system.  I've never
> had Emacs corrupt something while writing.

Hmmnm... it's been a long time since something like this happened to
me, and was caused by a rather ill NFS. 

Nevertheless it *can* happen! (and it has happened to me, but not with
the .newsrc.eld)

And having essential information (mail stuff), make up a small part,
of a big complex file, filled with mostly non-essential information
(news stuff) feels fragile.

And having to hand edit, and hand extract information from the
.newsrc.eld (as *have* happened to me, when I've tried experimental
versions of Gnus) has absolutly *no* pleasure value assigned to it.

Smaller files, would make manual error recovery (more) feasible.

Sigh! How about some form of .newsrc.eld syntax checker? Could be
external to Gnus proper.  A kind of error recovery/debugging tool.


- Steinar