Free inode-list exhaustion

[Alan Young]

Some time ago (about a year) there was considerable discussion about a
problem with exhaustion of the free-inode list of a mounted file system.
This was most commonly observed on file systems supporting Usenet News. 
As I recall the basis of the problem was a flaw in the algorithm for
refreshing the in-core free list from the disk and that this was only
exercised on file systems with a high turnover of inodes. 

I need to fix this.  I believe that the original discussion included
source fixes to the relevant kernel module.  Would some knowledgeable
soul please enlighten me, preferably by e-mail.