Make old articles reappear in recreated NG

[Felix E. Klee]

Hi,

when I delete a NG and later recreate it, the old articles do not
reappear.  Furthermore leftover old articles in the spool directory
block posting of new articles.  To make the old articles reappear (I
prefer not to delete them), I currently use the procedure outlined in
the following example.

1. Contents of group q.w.e (only one article was posted to the group -
   but the problem, of course, also happens with more articles):

   $ telnet localhost 119
   list
   [...]
   q.w.e 0000000001 0000000001 y
   [...]
   group q.w.e
   211 1 1 1 q.w.e

2. Recreation of q.w.e (to trigger the problem):
   ctlinnd rmgroup q.w.e
   ctlinnd newgroup q.w.e

3. Contents of recreated q.w.e (no articles are shown):

   $ telnet localhost 119
   list
   [...]
   q.w.e 0000000000 0000000001 y
   [...]
   group q.w.e
   211 0 0 0 q.w.e

4. Fixing of the problem by recreating the overview DB and editing
   active (should probably only be done while the server is throttled):
   
   $ ctlinnd throttle "resurrecting old articles"

   $ rm -r /var/spool/news/overview/*

   $ makehistory -O -x -F

   $ <some editor> /var/lib/news/active
   [...]
   q.w.e 0000000001 0000000001 y
   [...]

   $ ctlinnd go "resurrecting old articles"

5. Contents after successful recreation (the old article is shown):

   $ telnet localhost 119
   list
   [...]
   q.w.e 0000000001 0000000001 y
   [...]
   group q.w.e
   211 1 1 1 q.w.e

Now my question: Do I really need to recreate the entire overview
database to make the messages reappear?  Isn't there a simpler, quicker,
or more elegant way?

If the above method is really the best way to make the articles
reappear: Is there a way to avoid throttling of the server?  This is
something that I want to avoid at all costs.

Felix