Hi,

I am having trouble with slrn tracking which articles are marked read in
alt.folklore.computers. It does not affect any of the other groups i am
subscribed to. Below is a more detailed description of the problem.
Any suggestions how to troubleshoot this further?

Thanks!
-Ben

I am using slrn 1.0.3a on Slackware64-15.0 with Eternal September. When
i view alt.folklore.computers, slrn gives the following prompt:

alt.folklore.computers: Read how many? (default: 220682)

* I type 1 and press Enter.
* slrn shows me one article.
* I type d to mark the article read.
* I type q to retun to the group display.
* I type q to quit slrn.

* I start slrn again and view alt.folklore.computers.
* slrn gives the same prompt.
* I type 1 and press Enter.
* slrn shows the same article that i had previously marked read.

I tried running with "--debug logfile" but nothing stood out to me.

I observed that slrn saves ~/.slrn/grouplist-eternal-september.as, and
then moves that to ~/.slrn/grouplist-eternal-september on quit.

When i run:
grep 'alt\.folklore\.computers' \
~/.slrn/grouplist-eternal-september{,.as}

Both lines end with:
alt.folklore.computers: 220683

Below is my .slrnrc

set username __username__
set hostname "__hostname__"
set realname "__realname__"
set editor_command "vi + -c 'set textwidth=72' -c 'set wrap'"
set metamail_command "metamail"
set sorting_method 9
set scorefile ".slrn/scorefile-eternal-september"
server news.eternal-september.org .slrn/grouplist-eternal-september
nnrpaccess news.eternal-september.org __username__ __password__

On 2022-06-29, Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote:
> I am using slrn 1.0.3a on Slackware64-15.0 with Eternal September. When
> i view alt.folklore.computers, slrn gives the following prompt:
>
> alt.folklore.computers: Read how many? (default: 220682)

This would indicate that you haven't read any of the articles in the
group. While the highest numbered article in that group at this time is
220684 and the lowest is 3, there are several holes in the article
numbers and there are actually only 4000 and something articles
available.

> When i run:
> grep 'alt\.folklore\.computers' \
> ~/.slrn/grouplist-eternal-september{,.as}
>
> Both lines end with:
> alt.folklore.computers: 220683

Is that the full line in both files?

Cheers,
Tom

On 2022-06-29, Tom Furie <tom@furie.org.uk> wrote:
> This would indicate that you haven't read any of the articles in the
> group.
>
> Is that the full line in both files?

Yes, that was the full line in both files. Today the full line is:

alt.folklore.computers: 220684

It does seem to indicate that i haven't ready any of the articles. Yet
this happened after i pressed 'd' and slrn showed one article marked as
read.

Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote:
> I am having trouble with slrn tracking which articles are marked read in
> alt.folklore.computers. It does not affect any of the other groups i am
> subscribed to.

That immediately suggests something could be awry with other programs
editing your newsrc, or you're looking at a file slrn didn't keep
updated with the read articles. What you describe is not known
behavior for slrn. I'm unaware of slrn treating a single newsgroup
differently than the others when it comes to recording read articles
in the newsrc.

> Any suggestions how to troubleshoot this further?

Make a copy your of the relevant newsrc file, start a normal slrn
session with no macros running, mark some articles read in the
alt.folklore.computers read, visit other groups and mark some articles
read in those groups, and then quit slrn normally. This should let
slrn update the newsrc and close the open file handle to the newsrc.

> server news.eternal-september.org .slrn/grouplist-eternal-september
> nnrpaccess news.eternal-september.org __username__ __password__

I suggest putting in a full path to the newsrc in the server line so
that you're sure of which newsrc file slrn keeps up to date.

On 2022-06-29, J.B. Nicholson <jbn@forestfield.org> wrote:
>> Any suggestions how to troubleshoot this further?
>
> Make a copy your of the relevant newsrc file, start a normal slrn
> session with no macros running, mark some articles read in the
> alt.folklore.computers read, visit other groups and mark some articles
> read in those groups, and then quit slrn normally. This should let
> slrn update the newsrc and close the open file handle to the newsrc.

I did as you suggested, and slrn worked as i would expect it to!

I also put the full path to the newsrc in the server line of .slrnrc

I restored my newsrc file and scorefile, deleted the newsrc line for
alt.folklore.computers, and then re-subscribed to
alt.folklore.computers. Now my problem seems to be resolved.

Thanks for the help!

-Ben