> My archives were initially in
> a [listserv_archives] directory; I've now changed them to
> [listserv_archives.listname] (where listname happens to be M$DOSHIFT).

It is normal to have to rebuild the web index manually if you change the location of the archives. LISTSERV does not detect this automatically because it would be too time-consuming to open every single index file at startup and check that the file is still in synch with the archives. Of course, the question is why the REINDEX command is not doing what it should, and the telling symptom is:

> Since then, weirdly enough, (...) [t]he M$DOSHIFT.IND0801 stops at January 10.

This suggests a permission problem because, if you do not rebuild the web index, LISTSERV will just keep appending to it as it does not notice that the index must be rebuilt. LISTSERV would only stop appending to the index if there were an error (such as a permission error, disk full and so on), or if it thought that web archive access had been disabled. You disable web archive access by deleting the list subdirectory (and all its contents, i.e. the entire web index) in the WWW directory tree, which from your description you clearly have not done.

> LCMD REINDEX BOTH M$DOSHIFT
>
> reports that the one database index has been reset.

Right, but this is separate from the web index. The database index is used for searches and the like. The web index is used to format messages by thread/author, to build tables of contents and for RSS.

> M$DOSHIFT.IND0801 remains untouched.

This suggests that LISTSERV either thinks you have no web index for the list, or is unable to delete the files. One problem with asynchronous reindexing, which is the default with HPO, is that you may not see the error message. The next step is to try:

LCMD REINDEX WWW IMMEDIATE M$DOSHIFT

Hopefully, you will get some kind of error message, or it will show up on the log.

> I don't think I have file protection problems because LISTSERV can update
> the LOG0801 and SUBJECTS files

This is not the same directory, though. LISTSERV could have write permissions to the archive directory, but lack write access to the web index directory.

  Eric