On Mon, 15 Nov 1993 16:18:00 EDT John F. Chandler said:
>Marty Hoag, who (re)opened this discussion, is the person who would have
>edited the log if that had actually been done. He implies that he didn't
>do it. Who else could have? The list owners are on remote systems and
>unlikely to tamper with nitty-gritty stuff.
Huh? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your definition of 'remote' systems...
At the same time, I would assert that plenty of list owners (remote or not)
know how to retrieve a logfile, edit out messages that should never have
been posted, and PUT the revised version of the file. As Eric noted, such a
change (or deletion of an entire file) affects item numbering in the list's
database. [The next day's 'Index' message will reflect the new numbering.
(Actually, I can't swear to that - someone else would have to verify - it
may depend upon retrieval attempts which cause listserv to rebuild the index -
but on the one list I 'own' the problems with retrieval have never continued
past the first day, after which the database and 'index messages' were back in
sync.)]
>> detect the separation between messages, it has to rely on the presence
>> of a separator line followed by a valid header. If a user posts a
>> message containing a separator line and another valid message header,
>
>This sounds bizarre.
Not to me. If someone forwards a message from a newsgroup, for example, and
posts a preliminary message plus sig file, then uses the 'recognized'
separator, and it's followed by a 'valid' header, the logfiles treat the
single message as two (or more) messages. Perhaps a better example would be
logging mail messages into a new RiceMail 'notebook,' then including that
file (in its entirety) in a new mail message with no further editing of the
original messages. From what Eric said, as I understood it, the Index
function would (correctly) treat the incoming message as a single (long)
note. The database would see the separators, and assign separate index
numbers to same. That's just how it works, and it's not a big deal, as I
see it.
[At the same time, it can be a pain to explain -- similar to the "> " v. ">"
problem... which causes mail to bounce to my mailbox as listowner even though
it's a simple 'reply' to another message posted to the list...] ;-)
kt [one of those 'rare' types who's nothing more than a 'remote' list owner
subscribed here because he wants to understand the technical questions
related to 'owning' a Bitnet Listserv list... ]
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