[leafnode-list] Re: help with a pcre for only_groups_pcre

[Troy Piggins]

* Matthias Andree is quoted & my replies are inline below :
> Troy Piggins schrieb:
> > Been having trouble with what I assume are poorly named groups or
> > some sort of glitch on my upstream feed - motzarella or
> > iinet.net.au, my ISP.
> > 
> > Every time I start slrn with these new group names at the end of
> > .newsrc :
> > 
> > -----8<-----
> > +00000000.0000:alt.binaries.dvd.french.nzb!
> > +00000000.0000:alt.pl.matematyka!
> > a+00000000.0000:alt.binaries.dvd.midnightmovies!
> > -----8<-----
> > 
> > slrn crashes at the startup.  I delete these last 3 entries and
> > it works fine.  So I figure if I use leafnode's only_groups_pcre
> > to not get those groups.  Something like:
> > 
> > only_groups_pcre = !.*00000000\.0000:.*
> > 
> > Does this command stop entries of that pattern from even getting
> > added to my .newsrc?
> > 
> > Does that pattern look adequate?
> > 
> > Does anyone else have this problem?
> 
> Some comments:
> 
> 1. You're trying to fix up the wrong end. Update slrn or if it's the latest
> version and the crash persists, report it to the slrn maintainer(s). If
> slrn cannot handle b0rked newsgroup names, then it should skip them rather
> than write them to .newsrc. Leafnode's part here is GIGO. Garbage in,
> garbage out, not trying to impose some policy.

Fair point.  I'll mention it on the slrn list.

> 2. ! as prefix does not work here, check the pcrepattern manual page for
> "Lookahead assertions" and "Lookbehind assertions". It's somewhat
> complicated, I know. :-/
> 
> It might work to just use
> 
> only_groups_pcre = [^:]+$
> 
> Note this precludes valid newsgroup names according to RFC-3977 (check
> section 9.8 for newsgroup-name), so it's not a long-term solution.

Thanks for that.  I'll plug it in and see how it goes.

> 3. Also note that only_groups_pcre becomes effective only after the active
> files from all servers have been reloaded, thus, you'll have to use
> fetchnews -f after changing only_groups_pcre.

Thanks again Matthias  :)

-- 
Troy Piggins | http://piggo.com/~troy                           
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