[Xastir] Wx Alerts

[Tom Russo]

On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 03:40:32PM -0700, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <archer at eskimo.com> flavor, containing:
> On Fri, 20 Jun 2008, Tom Russo wrote:
> 
> > I'm real confused by this.  The log files aren't supposed to be read in 
> > automatically on restart.
> 
> util.c:
> 
> // Restore weather alerts so that we have a clear picture of the
> // current state.  Do this before we start the interfaces.  Only
> // reload if the log files datestamps are relatively current.

Bleah.  That seems like a bad idea to me, given that other log files are
meant to be just that.  I would never have assumed that simply enabling logging
would also mean that the logs were sucked in upon restart.

But it does mean that Chip should be able to clear out ancient alerts by 
removing the log files.  And it does suggest that the checking of timestamps
is busted.  Since the files get rotated after a while, it's possible that
their timestamps are being changed by the rotation process, thereby making
them appear "relatively current" when they're in fact ancient.  I don't think
most systems change the date stamp if you just rename a file (that doesn't
happen on any system I have access to), but perhaps that's the key on Chip's
system?  Chip, what are the time stamps on your wx_alert log files?

> // Check timestamps on each file in turn.  If relatively
> // current, read them in the correct order:

Actually, another possibility is that since the actual value of "relatively
current" is "15 days" as hard-coded in util.c's 
"load_wx_alerts_from_log_working_sub", that these ancient alerts are still 
just considered relative current.  

I've noticed some odd changes in wx alert behavior lately --- most notably,
while I *AM* configured to gate WX alerts from net to RF (because our local
Igate went down and there is now nobody else doing so in this region), Xastir 
NEVER gates them anymore, and it used to.  I don't know if this is a change in 
xastir or some subtle change in the alert text that leads xastir to not 
recognize it as something it is supposed to gate --- when I turn on debugging 
it seems to claim that it does not find the name in my nws-stations.txt file 
(even though that IS there).  Perhaps this is related, and somehow the 
deletion isn't being processed right? 

But I can't replicate the behavior Chip's seeing, as I have seen that alerts 
get expired properly on all of my stations.  

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
 "It's so simple to be wise: just think of something stupid to say and
  then don't say it."  --- Sam Levinson