Re: [leafnode-list] leafnode is not pulling in any news

[Matthias Andree <ma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ross Boylan <RossBoylan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> I am running leafnode 1.9.41-1 on Debian GNU/linux testing system,
> with pan 0.13.0-4 and a dialup account to earthlink.
>
> It seems not to be pulling in any new articles or headers, though it
> was a few weeks ago (erratically).  I am looking for help in how to
> diagnose the problem, since I've run into a number of peculiarities.
>
> 1) The FAQ says to check permissions on /var/spool/news.  This is a
> symlink to somewhere else.  It and the files under are user/group
> news.  Could the symlink be causing trouble?

As long as all directories from the symlink to the root are executable
for the "news" user (that'd be /var/spool and /var), no.

> 2) The FAQ also says "   1. Your groupinfo file is corrupt. Restart
> fetchnews with the -f parameter".  When I try to do this, I get the
> error
> #su news -c "/usr/sbin/fetchnews -f -v -v"
> leafnode 1.9.41.rel: verbosity level is 2
> try_lock(timeout=5), fqdn="wheat.dslnorthwest.net"
> Cannot obtain lock file, aborting.

Some other process, likely another fetchnews or texpire process, is
already running. Does your system start fetchnews when you've dialled
in, from /etc/ppp/ip-up or something?

> (same result when did it directly as root).  I don't see anything for
> fetchnews in /var/lock, though there is an entry for leafnode.

Then that's the one you're looking for. If you "cat" it, you should be
given the PID and the host name of the process holding the lock.

> I tried this while dialed up (when fetchnews should be running) and when
> disconnected (when it shouldn't).

fetchnews may not detect your connection is down for an extended amount
of time.

> The groupinfo file is large, and dated a day before my last messages
> were retrieved--suspicious.
>
> 3) I enabled logging, and all I see is this:
> Jul  1 23:58:03 wheat fetchnews[3018]: leafnode 1.9.41.rel: verbosity level is 0
> Jul  1 23:58:03 wheat fetchnews[3018]: config: debugmode is 1
> Jul  1 23:58:03 wheat fetchnews[3018]: config: expire is 20 days
> Jul  1 23:58:03 wheat fetchnews[3018]: config: found username for news.earthlink.net
> Jul  1 23:58:03 wheat fetchnews[3018]: config: found password for news.earthlink.net
> Jul  1 23:58:03 wheat fetchnews[3018]: config: maxage is 30
> Jul  1 23:58:03 wheat fetchnews[3018]: try_lock(timeout=5), fqdn="wheat.dslnorthwest.net"
>
> Is this normal?

There should be more logging after five seconds.

> 4) I notice my interesting.groups subdirectory has no entries dated
> more recently than June 25, despite my trying to access the groups
> through pan.

You need to list the "ctime" rather than the "mtime". Try ls -lc or ls
-ltc on interesting.groups.

> 5) I have a firewall.  Perhaps it is blocking traffic?
> However, when I point pan directly at the earthlink news server, I am
> able to access it.

Then it's not your firewall.

Could you try running fetchnews -nvvv (with debugmode still set to 1)
and see if you get more logging? It may be a good idea to redirect or
copy the output to a file so you can grep it later, like:

fetchnews -nvvv 2>&1 | tee fetchnews.log

-- 
Matthias Andree

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