Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cyb-eng.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!cyb-eng!howard From: howard@cyb-eng.UUCP (Howard Johnson) Newsgroups: net.news.b Subject: Re: News bug -- a major black hole found Message-ID: <640@cyb-eng.UUCP> Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 18:04:31 EDT Article-I.D.: cyb-eng.640 Posted: Mon Aug 12 18:04:31 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 02:12:57 EDT References: <3066@nsc.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Cyb Systems, Austin, TX Lines: 27 > I think I've found a major problem with news, one that is causing some of > our black holes out there. It is a very bizarre combination of events. Bizarre, yes. (But I won't cross-post to net.bizarre just yet. :-)) > What happens is this: Someone sends a control message, such as a cancel, > without a text body. [...] ends up writing the EOF char before realizing > it is EOF. [...] > > #! rnews 999 > [control message header] > ^?#!rnews 9999 > [next message header] Fortunately, this doesn't seem to happen on the most widely-distributed version of 2.10.2 (9/18/84 version, which I have). > unfortunately, the rnews batcher doesn't seem to be able to handle this. > o make sure that when you store a control message, it ends with a > newline. [...] > > o modify the rnews unbatcher to do two things: LOG these error messages > and store ANY data that it can't deal with somewhere to be unpacked by > hand later. This will cause more work for an SA, but at least messages > won't get lost. The version of news I have does the first of these, but not the second.