Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!shadooby!sharkey!itivax!b-tech!zeeff
From: zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Dynamic "smart" expiration?
Message-ID: <NVHHF|@b-tech.uucp>
Date: 3 Jan 90 15:12:08 GMT
References: <1989Dec27.033817.9953@smsc.sony.com> <1989Dec28.063932.13720@robohack.UUCP> <68634@looking.on.ca> <1989Dec29.213539.2801@utzoo.uucp> <6118@yunexus.UUCP> <69448@looking.on.ca> <1120@utoday.UUCP> <`QF52&@rpi.edu> <69654@looking.on.ca> <89Dec31.171430es <BR
Reply-To: zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff)
Organization: Branch Technology, Ann Arbor, MI
Lines: 10

Given that you can't count on there being .newsrc files and you don't 
want to modify the news readers, a remaining option is to have a 
program that watches the access and modification times of the articles 
and gradually learns what groups are being read.  It's not to hard to 
determine that if an article has been around for many days and the 
access_time = mod_time then it's likely that no one is reading the 
group.  

-- 
Jon Zeeff    	zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us  or b-tech!zeeff