Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!pacbell!sactoh0!tree!stever
From: stever@tree.UUCP (Steve Rudek)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: expire finds "unparsable date"--but, where? Where? Goddamnit! WHERE!
Keywords: expire, lousy_error_messages
Message-ID: <144@tree.UUCP>
Date: 17 Nov 88 21:54:39 GMT
Organization: TREE BBS (916)-349-0385 Sacramento, Ca
Lines: 30

(1)
The news accounts keeps getting mail messages from root complaining that
expire has encountered an 'Unparsable date "11/10/8<973@ccnysci.UUCP>
GMT"'.  How helpful.  Somewhere, in one of my 3 jillion news articles located
in one of several hundred newsgroups I've got a problem.  The log files
don't say anything more.  What do I do now (please don't tell me to combine
find and grep or I'm gonna cry)?
 
(2)
The rmgroup doesn't appear to accept "soc.all" as an argument.  Is there an
an easier way to delete numerous related newsgroups other than combining
find with the rmgroup?  FYI, "find" doesn't work in my news directories
because the directories have been "linked" to other directories. 

(3)
Why the hell are the news "log" files so huge?  I started off keeping 7
days news.  Then 5.  Then 4.  Last night I was seriously considering 
trimming down to *3* -- but then someone noticed that the miscellaneous
log files (errlog, log, log.1, log.2, etc.) were occupying *megabytes* of
space.  I can accomodate several additional days of news for the price of
those damned log files.  What happens if I delete or trim them on a daily
basis?  Can these files be blocked or restricted in size via some news
switch?  I'm running bnews, yes.  Don't know the version.
 
As a more open question (perhaps one which belongs in another news group)
what other files -- news related or otherwise -- have this sort of appetite
for disk space and should be curtailed?  User accounting files I know
about.

Thanks!