[HECnet] Tops-20 SETNOD Failure

Has anybody ever seen SETNOD fail to insert the entire node list?? I just did. Shortly after I put my 20's up on HECnet, I wrote a reoccurring batch job that fires once a week on Sundays to pull the latest node list (T20.FIX) from MIM::.? I use the highly venerable FILCOM program to do a difference of it with the previous week's list.? I don't do anything in particular with the output except save it in case I feel like looking at it for some reason. The batch job always inserts the entire list, rewriting whatever might be in the monitor's data base.? I have always been unsatisfied with doing things that way because it seemed to me to be inefficient as the node list grew.?? The HECnet node list count was 716 on 9-Jun-19 and it's now up to 884 as of the latest version that I've pulled, 30-Apr-21.? The other problem is the microscopic possibility that a node is in Tops-20's monitor database (a hash table) that isn't in the HECnet node list. Nodes can get removed, although I think that infrequent.? Nodes could get inserted outside of the batch job, but I think that most unlikely in my situation.? Nodes can get renamed, as evidenced by 2.299 below, which went from THEPIT to THEARK.? None of this should or has broken anything. However, it's been in the back of my mind to do two enhancements, one to Tops-20 and one to SETNOD. The NODE% JSYS should have an additional feature to return the current monitor data base.? The SETNOD program should be enhanced to take that to compute the set difference with the new list.? This would show additions, renames and deletions. That would bring the update operation down from some hundred items to less than ten, on average.? This would obviously make more of a difference on huge DECnet's in the tens of thousands of nodes. Another NODE% feature should probably be to whack the entire monitor database except for the local node, which would be useful for trouble shooting. Last Sunday, the batch job failed with the following error: 18:33:40 USER?? SETNOD>*TAKE SYSTEM:NODE-DATA.TXT.0 18:33:40 USER 18:33:40 USER?? [Fork SETNOD opening <SYSTEM>NODE-DATA.TXT.1 for reading] 18:33:41 USER?? SETNOD>*SAVE 18:33:41 USER 18:33:41 USER?? [Fork SETNOD opening <SYSTEM>NODE-DATA.BIN.74 for reading, writing] 18:33:41 USER?? SETNOD>*INSERT 18:33:41 USER 18:33:41 USER *?SETNOD: Failed at node REACH* 18:33:41 USER?? SETNOD> I had a look at the SETNOD source and the HECnet node list and have discovered and concluded a few things.? First, there doesn't seem to be anything syntactically wrong with REACH::'s definition: "set nod 2.298 name REACH". Second, there don't appear to be any semantic issues.? 2.298 wasn't in use and it shouldn't matter if it was. In the case of INSERT, there are two kinds of errors from NODE%, a general failure of the JSYS and an incomplete insertion.?? The error is from the second case.? Unfortunately, SETNOD isn't reporting enough information about the error, so I have to make some changes there.? It's also possible that SETNOD is building an inconsistent database for the monitor to swallow; at least the LIST command is giving me some odd results, viz: SETNOD>list arEA 2 [AREA 2] A2RTR TOTAL NODES FOUND: 1 SETNOD> That's clearly wrong, viz: !i dec ?Local DECNET node: VENTI2.? Nodes reachable: 7. ?Accessible DECNET nodes are:??? A2RTR??? BOINGO LEGATO??? TOMMYT??? VENTI2??? VENTI??? ZITI The Exec output should probably be changed to say, "Nodes reachable in local area" and "Online nodes in area are:" Anybody have any ideas?? Hunches?? Clues? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ File 1) OLDF:[4,120]??? created: 1241 15-Apr-21 File 2) NEWF:[1,1]????? created: 0102 30-Apr-21 1)1???? set nod 44.9 name OSMIUM **** 2)1???? set nod 2.292 name OSIRIS 2)????? set nod 44.9 name OSMIUM ************** 1)1???? set nod 13.3 name RED **** 2)1 *set nod 2.298 name REACH * 2)????? set nod 13.3 name RED ************** 1)1???? set nod 2.298 name RSX11M 1)????? set nod 1.306 name RSX124 **** 2)1???? set nod 1.306 name RSX124 ************** 1)1???? set nod 42.5 name SPARKY **** 2)1???? set nod 2.291 name SPARK 2)????? set nod 42.5 name SPARKY ************** 1)1???? set nod 2.299 name THEPIT 1)????? set nod 35.70 name THOMAS **** 2)1???? set nod 2.299 name THEARK 2)????? set nod 35.70 name THOMAS **************