🚀 go-pugleaf

[d.i.s.os2 added since this thread has also migrated there]

On Thu, 15 Jul 1999 19:24:30 +0100 (BST), in article
     <19990715.1824.42248snz@wash.demon.co.uk>
     john$@wash.demon.co.uk "John Washington" wrote:

> I had a small amount of mail on this topic, so it may be easier
> to clarify it publicly.  Since the following is entirely from
> memory, without checking the code, consider all my statements
> to be prefaced with "I believe".  Contradictions welcome.

Aha; I'm glad I've re-read this, because I was going to ask whether you
had checked the code.

> The problem that arises on & after 9 Sept 2001 is due to
> Snews keeping track of time with some count of seconds
> (millisecs?) since 1980 (1970?) and storing it in a fixed-
> format record.  At present this count is 9 digits, but
> will change to 10 just over a couple of years hence.

OK.

> There's a number of places where this is used, e.g. in
> creating some message IDs, but since these are free-format
> they will present no problem.
> 
> However, the index file for each newsgroup is made up of
> fixed-format records and the count is stored in them at
> offset 28.  This is the only problem.  Ka9q doesn't have any
> such problem.  DIS?  Anyone capable of reading the source of
> DIS is unlikely to do it for free, as Chris recently said.
> PcElm, <shrug> <oi vay>.  No source, no comment.

Offset 28????  Unless I'm looking at something different from you, I make
it offset 18; was that a slip of the finger?

For example, here is a line chosen at random from an .idx file here:
    00025537 00003308 932245580  Re: Corrosion of metal miniatures
    0         1         2         3         4         5
    012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890etc
    
See?  Offset 18.

But more importantly, look at the offset at which the title itself
starts: 29.  This means that there is ALREADY room for the 10-digit
u_time, and its trailing space.  See the TWO spaces that follow the
present 9-digit u_time.

Check the code: I suspect that you may be panicking unnecessarily.

BICBW; I haven't checked the code either (but will this w/e).

[Addendum @19:32A inserted before uploading]
I've checked the code: it's very strange, because in UNBATCH and EXPIRE,
the code that writes the revised index record has format 
        "%08ld %08ld %09ld %s"
so whence cometh the double space that I see in my index files?  Surely
there cannot be a space at the beginning of the subject line (that's
written with the %s???)  Something's decidely fishy.

-- 
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}                                         bhk@dsl.co.uk
    "But we're a university.  We /have/ to have a library!..."said Ridcully,
         "What sort of people would we be if we didn't go into the library?"
    "Students", said the Senior Wrangler, morosely. [TP: The Last Continent]