Retrieving old posts in a selected interval

[Charlie Roberts]

Just wondering if there is anyway of retrieving old
posts (about 10 years back!) for the sever
(providing that they keep stuff that long) using
Agent 8.

"Sample Recent Posts" has an option for retrieving
a selcted number of (I presume, the latest) posts
and one for *all* posts from the last "N" days.
But there I do not see an option for selecting a
particular interval of time.

Just wondering if there is a workaround.

Thanks.
CR

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Charlie Roberts
Just wondering if there is anyway of retrieving old
posts (about 10 years back!) for the sever
(providing that they keep stuff that long) using
Agent 8.
"Sample Recent Posts" has an option for retrieving
a selcted number of (I presume, the latest) posts
and one for *all* posts from the last "N" days.
But there I do not see an option for selecting a
particular interval of time.
Just wondering if there is a workaround.
User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272

Some Agent users have used this work-around:

 1)  "Sample Recent Headers" back to the start point (oldest time)
     where you want to sample from.

 2)  Watch the progress on the status bar.

 3)  Stop the task (click the red octagonal "STOP" button on the
     toolbar) when it appears the sample has reached the end point
     where you want to sample up to.


***  IMPORTANT DETAILS  ***

 A)  If you are going to stop the sampling, make sure you do NOT have
     any check-mark in the box "Update record of headers that have
     been retrieved". Otherwise, next time you get new headers Agent
     may start from way back where you stopped the sample.

 B)  Make sure that the news server advanced settings do NOT have a
     check-mark in the box "Use the XHDR command instead of XOVER".
     Otherwise, when you stop the sampling you may get no headers at
     all.

 C)  In Agent 5.0 and later

        When sampling the last "N" days, the progress bar moves across
        twice. The first pass, Agent is just finding the number of
        headers to retrieve. The second pass is when Agent actually
        retrieves the headers. One should be careful to use STOP in
        the second pass, not the first pass. If one hits STOP in the
        first pass, one will get no headers at all.

 ¢)  In Agent 4.2 and earlier

        You may not want to use the option to sample the last "N" days
        in Agent 4.2 and earlier. When sampling the last "N" days,
        Agent 4.2 and earlier get _ALL_ headers and then keep only
        those headers newer than the given date.
        Instead, use sample by number and estimate the correct number.

[Charlie Roberts]

Post by Ralph Fox
 1)  "Sample Recent Headers" back to the start point (oldest time)
     where you want to sample from.
 2)  Watch the progress on the status bar.
 3)  Stop the task (click the red octagonal "STOP" button on the
     toolbar) when it appears the sample has reached the end point
     where you want to sample up to.
***  IMPORTANT DETAILS  ***
 A)  If you are going to stop the sampling, make sure you do NOT have
     any check-mark in the box "Update record of headers that have
     been retrieved". Otherwise, next time you get new headers Agent
     may start from way back where you stopped the sample.
 B)  Make sure that the news server advanced settings do NOT have a
     check-mark in the box "Use the XHDR command instead of XOVER".
     Otherwise, when you stop the sampling you may get no headers at
     all.
 C)  In Agent 5.0 and later
        When sampling the last "N" days, the progress bar moves across
        twice. The first pass, Agent is just finding the number of
        headers to retrieve. The second pass is when Agent actually
        retrieves the headers. One should be careful to use STOP in
        the second pass, not the first pass. If one hits STOP in the
        first pass, one will get no headers at all.

Thanks, Ralph. I have been using this method ("discovering" it
when I stopped the retrieval as it was taking forever). The trouble
is that one does not know how much of the time frame Agent has
worked on. It is a trial and error thing and I am not sure that if
the procedure is aborted, Agent will pick it up from that point.
In any case, I did find the old posts that I was looking for, using
this method.

Of course, I learnt something else. Thanks for the warning about
the XHDR and XOVR warnings.

cr