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From: kcr%rushforth@Sun.COM (Kevin Rushforth)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.bugs
Subject: rn error handling bug
Message-ID: <98909@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 13 Apr 89 20:03:29 GMT
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: kcr@sun.com (Kevin Rushforth)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 27

I recently switched from "vn" to "rn".  I really liked vn, but rn's
kill files and the "k" command were too nice to pass up.  But I
digress...

In any case, I have discovered an annoying bug (or mis-feature, if you
will) in rn's error handling.  I mount the /usr/spool/news directory
via NFS, and occasionally our NFS server goes south while I am reading
news.  When rn attempts to open up the next article, the open will
fail, and will then be marked as read.  So far, so good.  In general rn
should skip articles that it can't open (usually it means the article
has expired or has been cancelled).

However, after skipping the offending article, rn continues to open (or
rather attempt to open) following articles in rapid succession, marking
each one as having been read.  This continues until I abort (via ^C)
rn, or until the entire newsgroup has been skipped.  Thank goodness for
".oldnewsrc".

Shouldn't rn stop and prompt the user after it skips the first article,
rather than blindly skipping over a whole pile of articles?

-- 
Kevin C. Rushforth                   | "If winning is not important,
Sun Microsystems                     |  then commander, why keep score?"
                                     |              - Lt. Worf
ARPA: kcr@sun.com                    |
UUCP: <most-backbone-sites>!sun!kcr  |