Active file disappearing, replies
Super user
root at ispi.UUCP
Wed Aug 17 23:18:03 AEST 1988
To all of you who responded to my cry for help, thank you. It turns out
that my problem (as many of you pointed out) was related to running two
expires at the same time. After I had put them in a shell script and
ran that script, the problem went away. I have copied all of the
replies I received up to now below.
Again, Thanks.
Jonathan Bayer
Intelligent Software Products, Inc.
19 Virginia Ave.
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
uunet!ispi!jbayer
>From uunet!ateng!chip Mon Aug 15 00:47:19 1988
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Date: Fri, 12 Aug 88 12:07 EDT
From: uunet!ateng!chip (Chip Salzenberg)
To: ispi!root
Subject: Re: active file disappering
Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.unix.xenix,comp.sources.bugs
In-Reply-To: <157 at ispi.UUCP>
Organization: A T Engineering, Tampa, FL
Cc:
In article <157 at ispi.UUCP> you write:
>00 17 * * * /usr/lib/news/expire -e 31 -E 31 -I -n comp.mail.maps
>00 17 * * * /usr/lib/news/expire -e 3 -E 31 -I -n all,!comp.mail.maps
Don't run two expires at the same time; that can be hazardous.
Try this:
00 17 * * * [expire comp.mail.maps]
15 17 * * * [expire all but comp.mail.maps]
In truth, you may want to forget the two expire runs, and just move maps to
another directory when they arrive, un-sharing them in the process.
--
Chip Salzenberg <chip at ateng.uu.net> or <uunet!ateng!chip>
A T Engineering stuck in a closet with Vanna White
>From uunet!uiucdcs!harvard!garp!henry Mon Aug 15 00:47:20 1988
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Date: Fri, 12 Aug 88 10:36:25 EDT
From: uunet!uiucdcs!harvard!GARP.MIT.EDU!henry (Henry Mensch)
Message-Id: <8808121436.AA05547 at GARP.MIT.EDU>
To: ispi!root (Super user)
Subject: Re: active file disappering
Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.unix.xenix,comp.sources.bugs
In-Reply-To: <157 at ispi.UUCP>
Organization: The Temple of St. Todd the Incontinent
In article <157 at ispi.UUCP> you write:
>I think the expire I am running is to blame. The following are the
>entries in the crontabs file for expire:
>
>00 17 * * * /usr/lib/news/expire -e 31 -E 31 -I -n comp.mail.maps
>00 17 * * * /usr/lib/news/expire -e 3 -E 31 -I -n all,!comp.mail.maps
you shouldn't run two expires at once!!! this is what's trashing your
history file...
--
# Henry Mensch / <henry at garp.mit.edu> / E40-379 MIT, Cambridge, MA
# {decvax,harvard,mit-eddie}!garp!henry / <henry at uk.ac.sussex.cvaxa>
>From uunet!marque!lakesys!steven Mon Aug 15 00:47:23 1988
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To: ispi!root
Subject: Re: active file disappering
Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.unix.xenix,comp.sources.bugs
In-Reply-To: <157 at ispi.UUCP>
Organization: Lake Systems - Milwaukee, WI
Cc:
Message-Id: <8808130934.AA09126 at lakesys.UUCP>
Date: 13 Aug 88 09:34:40 CDT (Sat)
From: uunet!lakesys!steven (Steven Goodman)
In article <157 at ispi.UUCP> you write:
[ copied article deleted]
Same thing recently happened here! Perhaps someone sent some sort
of control message out?
Steven
--
Steven M. Goodman
Lake Systems - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
{ihnp4,uwvax}!uwmcsd1!lakesys!steven
{rutgers,uunet}!marque!/
---
Steven M. Goodman
Lake Systems - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
{ihnp4,uwvax}!uwmcsd1!lakesys!steven
{rutgers,uunet}!marque!/
>From uunet!lll-winken!lll-crg!ames!coherent!dplatt Mon Aug 15 00:47:25 1988
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Date: Fri, 12 Aug 88 10:18:29 PDT
From: uunet!lll-crg!ames!coherent!dplatt (Dave Platt)
Message-Id: <8808121718.AA14474 at improper.coherent.com>
To: ispi!root
Subject: Re: active file disappering
Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.unix.xenix,comp.sources.bugs
In-Reply-To: <157 at ispi.UUCP>
Organization: Coherent Thought Inc., Palo Alto CA
I'm only guessing, but... to misquote a certain sweater-clad gentleman,
"Can you say 'race condition'?"
Running two expirations simultaneously is probably a _very_ bad idea. Each
one is going to try to rewrite the active and history files, and one expire
is probably vaporizing the file created by the other.
Rather than running two expires from the crontab, put the expire commands
in a shell-script file, and run this script out of the crontab. That way,
the expirations will run back-to-back rather than overlapped.
--
Dave Platt VOICE: (415) 493-8805
USNAIL: Coherent Thought Inc. 3350 West Bayshore #205 Palo Alto CA 94303
UUCP: ...!{ames,sun,uunet}!coherent!dplatt DOMAIN: dplatt at coherent.com
INTERNET: coherent!dplatt at ames.arpa, ... at sun.com, ... at uunet.uu.net
>From uunet!lll-winken!psuhcx!psuvax1!wcf Tue Aug 16 01:07:25 1988
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Date: Mon, 15 Aug 88 10:17:45 EDT
From: uunet!psuhcx!psuvax1!psuhcx!wcf (Bill Fenner)
Message-Id: <8808151417.AA24648 at hcx.psu.edu>
To: ispi!root
Subject: Re: active file disappering
Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.unix.xenix,comp.sources.bugs
In-Reply-To: <157 at ispi.UUCP>
Organization: Penn State University
Cc:
In article <157 at ispi.UUCP> you write:
[copied article deleted]
This happened to us a while ago - check what user you're running expire as.
Also check all the permissions on all the files, and on /usr/spool/news/*
(permissions and ownerships). They should *all* be owned by the same user,
whether it be news, usenet, or root.
Bill
--
Bitnet: wcf at psuhcx.bitnet Bill Fenner |
Internet: wcf at hcx.psu.edu | This space
UUCP: {gatech,rutgers}!psuvax1!psuhcx!wcf | for rent
Fido: Sysop at 263/42 |
>From uunet!uiucdcs!sys1!trsvax!trsvax.tandy.COM!gordon Tue Aug 16 01:07:27 1988
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Date: Mon, 15 Aug 88 14:01:48 CDT
From: uunet!uiucdcs!trsvax.tandy.COM!gordon (Gordon Burditt)
Message-Id: <8808151901.AA23367 at trsvax.tandy.COM>
To: ispi!root
Subject: active file disappering
Some suggestions, but not based on checking source code ...
> I have been having a problem for the past two days of the active
> file in /usr/lib/news being deleted after receiving a feed. I have
> copied an active file from my backup, did an "expire -r -I -e 999999 -E 999999"
Warning: if you're on a 16-bit int machine, maybe you should cut down the
expiration limit so it will fit into an integer. If 999999 % 65536 happens
to come out 1, you would get rather annoyed at losing most of your news.
Also, on any machine, the "cutoff time" shouldn't end up before Jan 1, 1970,
or you might end up expiring everything that arrived before 2038 (that is,
all your news).
> to rebuild the history file. Last night it happened again. If anyone
> has any ideas please e-mail them to me since I have no idea whether I
...
> I think the expire I am running is to blame. The following are the
> entries in the crontabs file for expire:
>
> 00 17 * * * /usr/lib/news/expire -e 31 -E 31 -I -n comp.mail.maps
> 00 17 * * * /usr/lib/news/expire -e 3 -E 31 -I -n all,!comp.mail.maps
Don't run two expires at once. Without checking the code, I'm not sure whether
the locking is supposed to handle this case or not, but it wouldn't surprise
me if it didn't, or it tried and it didn't work. For that matter, don't
run one expire an hour after the other on the assumption that the first will be
finished. Put both commands in a shell script and run that shell script
from cron, so one will not run until the other has finished. Be sure you
have a VERY comfortable margin that both expires will finish in 24 hours
before another one starts. (The fact that the two expires don't touch the
same groups is not relevant. Both of them touch the active file and the
history file.)
Gordon L. Burditt
...!killer!ninja!sneaky!gordon
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