Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: expire problems -- C News DEC 15 patch level
Message-ID: <1991Apr5.081745.6721@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1991 08:17:45 GMT
References: <1991Apr4.212815.14992@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <1991Apr4.212815.14992@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz> russell@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Russell J Fulton;ccc032u) writes:
>I assume that somehow I have got a bad line in the history file. The question
>is what should I do about it? I assume that I can't simply edit the history
>file because that will screw up the indexing.

Diagnosis correct.  Editing the history file is the first step to a fix,
but you need to follow it up by rebuilding the indexes.  If you're mildly
at home with the software, you can do this using the (now misnamed) program
mkdbm, which unfortunately is an internal component and ill documented.
A simpler alternative is to do an expire *immediately*, while preventing
any other news activity until it's finished.  This ought to be cleaned up
and packaged better, and it will be.

>Also how do I find the offending entry?

In this case, looks like it's an empty line, which should be easy.
-- 
"The stories one hears about putting up | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
SunOS 4.1.1 are all true."  -D. Harrison|  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry