[leafnode-list] Re: leafnode 1.11.7 unsubscribes low-traffic groups with slrn?

["Matthias Andree" <matthias.andree@xxxxxx>]

Am 04.09.2009, 23:10 Uhr, schrieb Peter J Ross <peadar.ruadh@xxxxxxxxx>:

> Matthias Andree wrote:
>> Robert Grimm schrieb:
>>> The default ist to use GROUP for every subscribed group in slrn, e.g.
>>> read_active defaults to 0. If read_active is set, slrn only issues LIST
>>> and NEWGROUPS and GROUP only when entering a group.
>
> slrn always starts the session with MODE READER, XOVER, XHDR Path, LIST
> OVERVIEW.FMT and NEWGROUPS. It then uses either GROUP once for each
> subscribed group or LIST, depending on the read_active setting. Then, on
> entering a group, XHDR or HEAD may be called for scoring purposes,
> depending on the slrn settings and the responses received when probing
> with XOVER, XHDR Path and LIST OVERVIEW.FMT.
>
>> Hm. The latter cannot possibly work with leafnode, because it's too  
>> unspecific.
>
> It works if one wishes to drop empty groups even if they're marked as
> subscribed, but that's probably not what most users want to happen.
> Should slrn be modified to always use GROUP for all subscribed groups?

As I understood Reiner's posting, read_active defaults to 0, which would  
be fine. The problem with low-traffic groups is that the newsreader  
doesn't usually send group-specific commands (GROUP, LISTGROUP, ...)  
unless there are new postings.

leafnode-2 explicitly tracks when the last posting has arrived in a group  
and tracks expiry times relative to that, so that it doesn't unsubscribe  
users when the interval between postings is longer than timeout_long.

leafnode-1 doesn't have this code, and I have no intention of porting it  
back. fetchnews has supported "-n" (noexpire = do not expire newsgroup  
subscriptions) for ages - it can be used to work around unsubscriptions.

>> We could work around that and pretend LIST refreshes interest in all  
>> subscribed
>> groups, but I'm not sure if that's harmful and prevents  
>> unsubscriptions, so I'm
>> not going to change 1.X for that matter.
>
> I don't see how leafnode could tell which groups slrn marks as
> subscribed unless slrn distinguishes them somehow from other groups. If
> a change is needed, it's needed in slrn, not in leafnode.
>
>> I'll rather document for 1.11.8 that slrn should be used with  
>> read_active at its
>> default setting of 0.
>
> Is this still true for leafnode 2.x?

No - but I've been unable to figure out since when exactly we've had the  
feature. Relevant code bits have been in leafnode-2 since late 2001.

> I'll add a note to the slrn documentation about this side-effect of
> setting read_active, pending a possible change to the slrn code.

Thank you. I don't suggest changing slrn source code. Documentation should  
suffice.

Best regards

-- 
Matthias Andree
-- 
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