[leafnode-list] Re: leafnode 1.11.7 unsubscribes low-traffic groups with slrn?

[Peter J Ross]

Matthias Andree wrote:
> Robert Grimm schrieb:
>> The default ist to use GROUP for every subscribed group in slrn, e.g.
>> read_active defaults to 0. If read_active is set, slrn only issues LIST
>> and NEWGROUPS and GROUP only when entering a group.

slrn always starts the session with MODE READER, XOVER, XHDR Path, LIST 
OVERVIEW.FMT and NEWGROUPS. It then uses either GROUP once for each 
subscribed group or LIST, depending on the read_active setting. Then, on 
entering a group, XHDR or HEAD may be called for scoring purposes, 
depending on the slrn settings and the responses received when probing 
with XOVER, XHDR Path and LIST OVERVIEW.FMT.

> Hm. The latter cannot possibly work with leafnode, because it's too unspecific.

It works if one wishes to drop empty groups even if they're marked as 
subscribed, but that's probably not what most users want to happen. 
Should slrn be modified to always use GROUP for all subscribed groups?

> We could work around that and pretend LIST refreshes interest in all subscribed
> groups, but I'm not sure if that's harmful and prevents unsubscriptions, so I'm
> not going to change 1.X for that matter.

I don't see how leafnode could tell which groups slrn marks as 
subscribed unless slrn distinguishes them somehow from other groups. If 
a change is needed, it's needed in slrn, not in leafnode.

> I'll rather document for 1.11.8 that slrn should be used with read_active at its
> default setting of 0.

Is this still true for leafnode 2.x?

I'll add a note to the slrn documentation about this side-effect of 
setting read_active, pending a possible change to the slrn code.

-- 
PJR :-)