BJ> Ok, then why haven't you picked up an external renumber routine for
 BJ> your use and avoid the possible problems?  

 MB> I'd love to, but do not know which are still OK (I've 
 MB> heard that there are Y2K issues with CONFMAIL, which I 
 MB> used previously, for example).  Do you have a 
 MB> recommendation?  It would be appreciated.

 BJ> Ah....  Part of the reason I've switched from *.msg to squish for
 BJ> almost all my areas.  I have some limited netmail areas that are
 BJ> *.msg, but they never get more than a few hunderd messages in a
 BJ> given area before I archive stuff and start the counters overs.....
 BJ> So, it has been years since I've used a renumber function.  

I have not used one since before January 2000 either, since I stopped using CONFMAIL.

 BJ> On the other hand, if I needed to do it today, I'd make a copy of
 BJ> the area (as a backup) and then run sqconv on the area, converting
 BJ> from *.msg to *.msg, in a new subdirectory.  If that didn't work,
 BJ> I'd run the program twice, first to go *.msg to squish and the
 BJ> second to go squish to *.msg.....  I believe that would do the
 BJ> trick....  But, as you know, I'd just convert most areas to squish
 BJ> and leave it that way....   Just make sure nothing else is touching
 BJ> the message area you are working on while performing the
 BJ> conversion.....

That could take a while, but renumbering would too.  I'll have to see what
I can do with this concept.

 BJ> Ok...  I seem to recall "renum" was around.  Last time I used it
 BJ> was prior to Y2K thou....  As long as you are just renumbering the
 BJ> messages (back to 1.msg, 2.msg, etc.) and not deleting based on
 BJ> time, I would think the code should be fine....  Make a backup copy
 BJ> and test.....

It was part of CONFMAIL, a command line parameter if I remember correctly.

 MB> That is what I was wary of, and why the question.

 BJ> Ok.  I would expect you to be ok to the 32K mark for the numbers. 
 BJ> Actual number of messages is probably limited to 15K or 16K for
 BJ> indexes stored in memory (and maybe less if you have less memory). 
 BJ> Since you are only keeping a few thousand messages, the 15K or 16K
 BJ> assumed index limit won't be hit.  And it could be good to 64K for
 BJ> the message number, or even to 99999999 if the message number is
 BJ> totally handled as character strings.

If it is character strings, I am probably OK.  If as an integer, there
could be a problem brewing.

 BJ> Basically, at this point....  make a back up copy and then test the
 BJ> renum code you were using with out deleting any messages based on
 BJ> date / time considerations.

Now that you mention that, you could be right.  I might try CONFMAIL on a
copy in another directory to see what happens.

 BJ> Good luck.....

Thanks!

Mike Bourne

--- timEd 1.10.y2k