Problem with disappearing history file

[Netnews Administrator]

In article <5849 at polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> steve at polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett) writes:
>
>	Has anyone had any problems with a history file in 2.11.14 that decides
>to disappear occasionally???  We've had this problem occur enough times that I
>am sure it's not related to running out of disk space or other hardware-related
>problems.  When this happens, I get a message (as news) saying something to the
>effect of:
>
>	"There was a problem with the history file.  It has been fixed."
>
>However, after that, we're back to a zero-sized history file (which will then
>grow normally, but we end up with duplicate articles for a while due to lack of
>history).  I've looked all around the system for things that might be happening
>that coincide with the history file shrinking, but there doesn't seem to be
>any pattern.
>
>	Any ideas??  Solutions??
>
As someone else pointed out multiple expires will cause it.  Also
running one expire followed by another.  Remember that every
expire exits by running a rnews -U in the backgroud.  Running an
expire after that will trash either the active file and/or the
history file.  The last time it happended I managed to reclaim an
active file from some where that gave me the news groups and
moderation but had article id's sl;ightly off. [Alright, once a
week I save a copy as /usenet/lib/oactive.]

Then run the following script, adapted for your system: [This is
UNIX System V for the 3B20].

----- cut ----- here ---------
. /etc/TIMEZONE		# set TZ just incase
PATH=:/bin:/usr/bin:/local/bin:/usenet/bin:/usenet/lib:.:	# for progs
cd /usenet/lib		#where we hide the history and active file
#
date >> expire.log	#logs expires
echo "/usenet/lib/expire -v -u -r -e 999 -E 999 ">>expire.log
setpgrp nohup /usenet/lib/expire -v -u -r -I -e 999 -E 999 >>expire.log 2>&1 &
----- cut ----- here ---------

This will take about 3-6 hours depending on the size of spool.  

Good luck.
-- 
=Dennis L. Mumaugh
 Lisle, IL       ...!{att,lll-crg}!cuuxb!dlm  OR cuuxb!dlm at arpa.att.com