[ic] Sudden loss of products.comment in otherwise perfect catalog

[Dan Browning]

At 08:30 PM 4/30/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>At 06:24 PM 4/30/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>>(dedicated RH 7.2, IC 4.8.3, RPC mode, Pgsql database)
>>
>>The "comment" field (AKA "long description") of ~75% of a client's 
>>products went blank (NULL) recently.  TGIF (Thank Goodness I Found a 
>>backup).  I don't yet have enough data to be useful to anyone (I can't 
>>even reproduce the problem yet), but I thought there was a chance someone 
>>had already seen this one or had some ideas.
>>
>>The only connecting factor between the ones that disappeared is that they 
>>were quite large and full of HTML tags.  (The 25% that remain have simple 
>>one-line entries in the comment field).
>>
>>  * We don't know the specific time it happened
>>  * Current Intel says no one was using the admin
>>  * error.log, /var/log/messages, and logs/* didn't reveal anything
>>  * I'm thinking about turning on query logging, but I'll probably wait 
>> until I can reproduce it.
>>
>>At any rate, just posting as a shot in the dark.  :-)
>
>First thoughts:
>- field size in Pgsql has been truncated for the comments field somehow;

I thought so too, but the field didn't seem to change from TEXT.

>- somebody tried to fiddle with the source text file in windows, it 
>contained embedded carriage returns in the comments field, not a problem 
>in Unix but a *big* problem for Microsoft products... net result: comments 
>seriously chopped;

If they did, they wont admit it.  :-)

>I would check the dates on products.txt, products.sql and the Pgsql logs 
>(if you have them, sounds like you may not) for any evidence which roughly 
>corresponds timewise with when the problem was first noticed.

I appreciate the comments and I'll see if I can replicate the problem again 
(with the SQL log turned on this time).  :-)

+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Dan Browning, Kavod Technologies <db@kavod.com>
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The optimum committee has no members.
                 -- Norman Augustine