Re: Error message when doing expire.
From: A.R. & F.L. Scott-Thoennes (sthoenna@peak.org)
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 18:53:32 -0800
In article <Qp01ygHAAcHa092yn@y.z>, hello@see.my.sig (Tim Maddletyn) wrote:
>Fri, 10 Jan 1997 23:32:51 -0800, cthulhu@usa.net (Cthulhu) wrote:
>> Okay. . .I didn't think it was totally related to yarnpack. But then
>> again, it was the only software that I've installed that has interacted
>> with Yarn. =-)
>
>Well you can't be too paranoid. It *could* be related to Yarnpack. Who
>knows, for sure. (-: Not me. I wouldn't rule any possibility out, without
>more information...
>
>>* c:\Apps\DOS\Yarn\news.dat integrity check... BAD! (unsynced history)
>
>Interesting. Your safest bet sure be definitely "rebuild -s". What that
>error message means is that you've got a different number of message ID's
>stored in your history.pag than messages in your news.dat. (i should have
>made it more descriptive to say which had more and which had less... must
>remember that)... I have no idea what could have caused it, or even if it's
>an extremely abnormal situation. But to be on the safe side I make yarnpack
>treat it as a serious problem -- because it could mean your history.pag is
>corrupt... possibly. A "rebuild -h" would proably fix that problem... but
>if you are resetting the import counters with rebuild -h you might as well
>go all the way with a rebuild -s and make sure everything is rebuilt.
>
>That's my theory anyhow!
Yarn's SPOOLFIL.CPP Assertion failed message makes me think
that news.dat is corrupt, not history. I would think ideally
your error messages would be simple enough to be clear to joe user
but also provide enough info that someone with a good hex editor,
some understanding of yarn's files, and a little daring could take
a stab at fixing things manually.
By the way, would you make your source code available (at least to
me)? I have tried to phathom the format of the history files with
no luck. No comments on your coding style, I promise.