Xref: utzoo news.software.b:1202 comp.unix.microport:253
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!apollo!mrst!sdti!mjy
From: mjy@sdti.UUCP (Michael J. Young)
Newsgroups: news.software.b,comp.unix.microport
Subject: Re: Problem with News when patched at 14
Message-ID: <245@sdti.UUCP>
Date: 11 Mar 88 15:00:00 GMT
References: <504@wa3wbu.UUCP> <253@lxn.UUCP> <410190420@nwnexus.UUCP> <914@bigtex.uucp>
Reply-To: mjy@sdti.UUCP (0000-Michael J. Young)
Organization: Software Development Technologies, Sudbury MA
Lines: 30
Keywords: crash problems sad screwy what-inodes?

In article <914@bigtex.uucp> james@bigtex.UUCP (James Van Artsdalen) writes:
>I've been running news patchlevel #14 since it came out on my 286 2.2, and
>now for the last week on my 386 2.2l, with no "lost" inodes.  However, I have
>found that my slightly-modified inews must be compiled without the optimizer,
>or it produces a bad history file.  I'm not going to try to track down the
>exact cause of the problem, as hopefully the new compiler from uPort is coming
>soon...
>
>On those inodes: Come on people, inodes don't just "disappear".  If they're
>truly being lost by the kernel (highly unlikely), fsck will show it. 

And it does.  This is a known problem that is common to all System V kernels,
and has been discussed at length in comp.unix.questions (wizards?).  Someone
even posted a simple test that was guaranteed to cause the problem, as well
as a fix for those who had a source license.  The problem has to do with the
way the kernel searches for free i-nodes, and has nothing to do with news.
News just happens to be very effective at creating the situation in which
the kernel bug appears.

I've been running patch level #14, and I lose inodes, more frequently than
I did under patch level #8.  But I used to see them under level #8 also.
I now run df and fsck on my spool volume every day just to be safe.

I hope Microport was listening to the net when the original discussion was
going on.  I'd like to think that the next version of the kernel will
incorporate the fix that was posted.  How about it, Microport?
-- 
Mike Young - Software Development Technologies, Inc., Sudbury MA 01776
UUCP     : {decvax,harvard,linus,mit-eddie}!necntc!necis!mrst!sdti!mjy
Internet : mjy%sdti.uucp@harvard.harvard.edu      Tel: +1 617 443 5779