Seeing interesting reader stalls, -CURRENT, CNFS, tradoverviews

[Joe St Sauver]

Hi,

I've been seeing some ongoing problems with selected newgroups
under INN 2.4.0 (20020315 prerelease) whereby a reader attempting 
to read a given group appears to simply stall/deadlock, e.g., a 
user attempting to read alt.fan.frank-zappa with trn sees:

====== 25838 unread articles in alt.fan.frank-zappa -- read now? [+ynq] 
Getting overview file. [                         ]

and then nothing (even over a period of an hour or more). Then suddenly,
if you hit a space or hit return, it may come up (sort of) with an article
(but unfortunately not the right one, even though the newsreader definitely
thinks it is still "in" that group. For example:

#alt.fan.frank-zappa #222535 (0 + 6653 more)                                (1)
#Path: news.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.mesh.ad.jp!ctu-
#+     gate!news.nctu.edu.tw!news.edu.tw!news!ntoucc
#From: xixi.bbs at bbs.ntou.edu.tw ($@$Q&h$@BI4<<z)
#Newsgroups: ntou.club.tzuchi
#Subject: @R+d;y!!
#Date: 29 Apr 2001 08:36:11 GMT
#Organization: .|$j-p$$ BBS
#Message-ID: <3gAQjC$sXU at bbs.ntou.edu.tw>
#X-Filename: TzuChiYouth/M.988533372.A
#Lines: 8
#Xref: news.uoregon.edu ntou.club.tzuchi:604
#
#-n$Q$U5L(a!A%267*@7|2;)M!F-n*@7|2;)M!A4N-n+X%_&n.a.x!F&n.a.x%X&b&[$v%;(-!C
#
#--
#'V<V*:/53Z:$#,O05&[$v3_Ew*:(F!A&S,O%h3_Ew&[$v05*:(F!E
#
#--
#^[[1;36m!0 Origin: ^[[32m.|$j-p$$ BBS ^[[36m!; From: ^[[33mdorm3.ntou.edu.tw^[[0
#m

Exiting from that group and then returning to the group, one sees a more 
rapid connection, but still irrelevant/misfiled articles such as:

#alt.fan.frank-zappa #222460 (10 + 6662 more)                          ( )--(1)
#Path: news.uoregon.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!
#+     news.maxwell.syr.edu!opentransit.net!fu-berlin.de!carnet.feed!Iskon!not-
#+     for-mail
#From: "SickJedi" <sstilinovic at hotmail.com>
#Newsgroups: hr.rec.sf.starwars
#Subject: Re: proba
#Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 22:45:03 +0200
#Organization: Iskon Internet d.d.
#Lines: 6
#Message-ID: <9chude$4bt$1 at sunce.iskon.hr>
#References: <deroetcncu14ikpdggcao4h99rbnvtetd9 at 4ax.com>
#NNTP-Posting-Host: zg06-130.dialin.iskon.hr
#X-Trace: sunce.iskon.hr 988577006 4477 213.191.148.131 (29 Apr 2001 20:43:26
#+        GMT)
#X-Complaints-To: abuse at iskon.hr
#NNTP-Posting-Date: 29 Apr 2001 20:43:26 GMT
#X-Priority: 3
#X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
#X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200
#X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200
#Xref: news.uoregon.edu hr.rec.sf.starwars:52
#
#> proba
#Cemu ovo?
#
#SickJedi

The .DAT file for that group doesn't look inherently unreasonable (e.g., 
dividing 2204674 by 25838 gives 85.32, not an inherently unreasonable number),
but the IDX file strikes me as a little on the large size. 

-rw-rw----    1 news     news      2204674 Apr  2 09:56 alt.fan.frank-zappa.DAT
-rw-rw----    1 news     news      1039080 Apr  2 09:56 alt.fan.frank-zappa.IDX

Has anyone else seen this? Is there a tool that will walk one's overview
tree, file by file, rebuilding them/removing pointers to articles not posted 
(or crossposted) to each group scrutinized? 

Thanks,

Joe