Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1a 12/4/83; site rlgvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!rlgvax!guy From: guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: net.followup,net.wanted,net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: USENET line eater? Message-ID: <2012@rlgvax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 11-Jun-84 19:42:47 EDT Article-I.D.: rlgvax.2012 Posted: Mon Jun 11 19:42:47 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 12-Jun-84 06:59:27 EDT References: <1957@utcsstat.UUCP> <1826@dartvax.UUCP> Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA Lines: 38 > < this is the first line of this article > > < this is the second line of this article > > > Okay, everybody on USENET seems to be convinced that there > exists a bug somewhere which causes the first lines of > articles to disappear. I myself have never noticed any > mutilated articles on the net. Does anyone know whether > the dreaded line-eater really exists? There wasn't a bug that caused the first lines of articles to disappear. There *was* a bug that caused the first bufferful (512 or 1024 bytes) of articles whose first line of text was indented (with a blank or a tab) to disappear. The bug wouldn't eat either of the lines listed above; it would have eaten the first line of This is the first line of this article This is the second line of this article and the second line, and quite a bit of text after that. The bug's fix is fairly well known, and 1) People have been putting in lines at the front of articles, usually not indented; whether their rationale was correct or not, it had the desired effect. Our machine sticks a blank line at the front of all such articles. (Some people have stuck in *indented* "bug-catcher" lines at the beginning of articles with an otherwise *non-indented* first line, which has the exact opposite effect.) 2) More sites have fixed the bug, especially sites that pass a lot of articles through them; I remember somebody saying the bug didn't affect articles posted locally, only articles passed through the site. So you probably aren't seeing as many munched articles as before. Unfortunately, the version of B news that's distributed with 4.2BSD has the bug, so any new 4.2BSD news site is likely to re-introduce the bug. Guy Harris {seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy