[leafnode-list] Bug in listgroup?

Matthias Andree ma at dt.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de
Sun Jan 2 18:40:12 CET 2005


Frank Wein <mcsmurf at mcsmurf.de> writes:

> i'm not sure if this can be called a bug, but better the devs decide 
> about this: When you cancel a posting in a local (maybe also in normal 
> groups, didn't test) group, the ARTICLE command doesn't return this 
> article anymore, so far so good. But when you now execute the command 
> LISTGROUP local.test1, it still returns this article in the list. This 
> article gets purged from this list when you run texpire. I don't know if 
> it's worth the overload for local groups to do what texpire does when a 
> article has been cancelled. I just thought i'll forward this bug(?) to 
> you :).

True, but I don't consider this an issue.

I have asked the NNTP group for clarification of 8.1.1.2 of the upcoming
NNTP draft, which apparently makes empty promises or raises false
expectations about the preciseness of the LISTGROUP reply.


However, my interpretation is as follows: LISTGROUP is supposed to
provide to the client the list of articles that were available at the
time the command arrived at the server. An article may however disappear
at any time AFAICT, so, a client MUST NOT assume that all articles /are/
there, but all /can/ be there - an article may have been removed between
the LISTGROUP reply and the following ARTICLE command. The client must
IMO be prepared to handle this.

To the client, it will usually make no difference, except if a client
tries to check by means of LISTGROUP if its own cancel has
completed. IMO it's no good to double check on the server, either you
trust it and just use it or you don't.


In leafnode, LISTGROUP looks into the .over.view file to figure which
articles are available, and updating the .over.view is a quite expensive
operation, as we have flat text files, without index or "active"
marks. I therefore do not intend to change the current behaviour in the
near future.

HTH,

-- 
Matthias Andree



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