Force decoding incomplete files

[tvholic]

I'd like to suggest a function to force decoding selected incomplete file(s), even though the retry count hasn't been reached.  I set the retry count > 0 in case a server is down, or a new post hasn't finished propagating.  But there are times when I know that a file can't be completed, and there's no point in waiting for any more retries.  My options are to temporarily reconfigure the retry count to 0 (and remember to change it back), or to manually ydecode the articles in the temp directory, neither of which are great.

[dabrown]

This sounds like or at least similar to an issue I saw and have reported as a bug:

- if you have your news server "Connected while idle" sometimes you may end up with a yenc undecoded file.  It may not be related to what I say, or something completely different, but try turning off the "Connected when idle" option in the servers and make sure you apply for each of your news hosts.

That *should* get rid of those pesky yenc files - otherwise, Alt.Binz will automatically decode a partially completed .rar (which might be missing one or more posts)

Also check setup > download and make sure the "When incomplete, position parts on correct position in file (yenc only) - pretty sure this is checked by default.  It's pretty rare to see Alt.Binz output a yenc file, except in certain circumstances like I mentioned above, if you have "Connected while idle" set for your newshosts, uncheck the box and see if the same behaviour happens.  rdl might be able to give another example where this might occur.

If you are seeing 430 errors in your log file and the nzb file you are trying to download is less than one hour old, then it is quite possibly a propagation issue - wait until the file is at least one hour old and try again.

It depends on where the source files are originally posted to and what tier 1 upstream providers they connect to, as to how quick propagation occurs.  You'd need to give specifics on where the nzb came from or the actual file itself to be able to possibly track where it was posted to, and how long it might take to get to your news host.

Hope this helps.

[tvholic]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I don't have those options enabled.

I was referring to the situation where a file is incomplete on all the servers I have access to.  Perhaps I've only been able to get 95 out of 100 parts.  I want to decode the incomplete file anyway, because then the par2 program will be able to repair it by downloading the necessary .par2 files.  But Alt.Binz won't do that until it completes its retry cycle.

[dabrown]

ok, yes now I understand, a little different to what I was talking about and yes, you are correct, Alt.Binz needs to recheck the post x amount of times (whatever you have it set to) before it will eventually decode the rar file with the missing data.  That's fairly standard behaviour for the program, I guess you could set retries to zero and see if that helps, if not, rdl might be able to make a suggestion.

Cheers.

[dh2]

I was referring to the situation where a file is incomplete on all the servers I have access to.  Perhaps I've only been able to get 95 out of 100 parts.  I want to decode the incomplete file anyway, because then the par2 program will be able to repair it by downloading the necessary .par2 files.  But Alt.Binz won't do that until it completes its retry cycle.

I second this request!!! This capability would be a very welcome addition to Altbinz