[2605] in SIPB bug reports
alt.music.enya.puke.puke.pukeSender:
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Mon Mar 16 22:22:37 1992
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 22:22:02 -0500
From: "Jonathan I. Kamens" <jik@pit-manager.MIT.EDU>
To: kkkken@Athena.MIT.EDU
Cc: bug-sipb@Athena.MIT.EDU, usenet@Athena.MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: kkkken@Athena.MIT.EDU's message of Mon, 16 Mar 92 16:45:16 -0500 <9203162145.AA19592@gevalt.MIT.EDU>
IMHO, Ken, it would have been MUCH better to wait until someone
picayune-literate showed up to fix the problem. Editing the active
file by hand without locking the news system is VERY VERY BAD. People
not being able to read news for a while is a problem, but a relatively
minor one. The havoc that could be wreaked by editing the active file
by hand is quite possibly much more severe.
You've already discovered that the correct way to do this is with
"delgroup". If you *do* need to edit the active file by hand for some
reason, the correct way to do it is to use "locknews" after su'ing to
news. It is safe to edit the active file by hand when the news system
is locked in that way. It starts a subshell, and then when you exit
the subshell, the news system is unlocked.
jik
