[leafnode-list] Re: texpire and long expiry times

[Matthias Andree]

Am 19.06.2010, 17:04 Uhr, schrieb Robert Marshall:

> Way back in November 2008  I changed the expiry for one group from 42  
> days
> to 366 days. I then didn't see any articles expire for that group
> until around December 2009 (more or less expected). However once the
> anniversary passed when lots of articles were deleted it went back to no
> articles at all being deleted.
>
> This group has posts more or less every day so I was expecting it to be
> trimming back ones which were over a year old. They're aren't any *very*
> long threads (I was just using texpire -vvvv) and I using my newsreader
> wasn't inspecting very old articles (just me using the server) so I'm a  
> bit puzzled as to why nothing was being expired.

Hi Robert,

this might show because leafnode-2 expires thread-based unless you add the  
-a option. However given this case I'd like to ask you to save the  
.overview file of the group, and a lsmac.pl (a script shipped in the  
tools/ source directory) listing of the group directory first, so we have  
any chance at all at figuring out what might cause this.

It would keep threads (by References) non-expired if newer articles in the  
same thread have been read in the expiry period.  It doesn't explain why  
that would keep threads that have seen no postings in a long time.

> I've just run with -f and I get
>
> sudo -u news /usr/local/sbin/texpire -vvvv -f uk.religion.christian
> texpire 2.0.0.alpha20060428a: check mtime only
> uk.religion.christian: 10667 articles deleted, 17861 kept
> message.id: 10667 articles deleted, 39371 kept
> Checking if there are local posts sitting in the queue...
> found 0 articles in in.coming.
>
> so it would appear that the access time is being modified, but that  
> doesn't - afaict - explain why lots of them were expired on the  
> anniversary.

Depends on which had been read. That is a little hard to trace, as in many  
configurations logs expire quick enough that we can't figure it out any  
more.

> Looking at the relevant spool directory I'm still seeing - after the  
> above
> texpire run - lots dating from Nov 2008, articles which - afaicr - didn't
> form huge threads. There's then a gap until Feb 2009 another gap and  
> then a
> more uniform distribution where the threads prob extended to 12 months  
> ago.
>
> I realise that that leafnode 2 version is getting a little long in the
> tooth but I can't see - looking at NEWS - see any changes which might
> affect this.


> The man page says (under Bugs)
>
>     Texpire is unable to delete articles in groups which have  
> non-consecutive
>     numbers with huge gaps.
>
> Could it be that the time it hit expire at the end of 2009 lots of  
> articles
> were deleted and that left 'huge' gaps? - there don't appear on a quick  
> scan
> to be any gaps larger than around 200.

I don't think this is the cause. Leafnode (or rather texpire) only needs  
sufficient memory to cover the gaps.

Hope that gets us closer to the issue.

Best regards
Matthias

-- 
Matthias Andree