When running tin after the upgrade to the new version, some of the
user configuration is removed (I could see that from a backup):
  * in .tin/attributes: user comments (including commented rules).
  * in .tin/filter, an expired rule, i.e. with a "time" parameter
    and an old time (even though the rule has expired, the user may
    want to keep information from it).

Such data has no influence on the behavior of tin, but this may be
valuable information written by the user (e.g. explaining why a rule
has been added or a commented rule that the user may want to re-add
in the future) and must be kept in some form.

First of all, expired filter rules have ever been removed from the
filter file since Iain changed the format between tin-1.22 and
270194APLHA so that behaviour is the same for the last ~31 years.

Second, comments in attributes (and tinrc etc.pp) have ever been dropped
when writing them since those file have a version number (for attributes
that's since 1.5.18 release 20030602).

Keeping expired filter rules should be doable with not too much efford
(likely companied with a tinrc-var which defaults to "remove expired
rules" but having an option to keep them). I'll put that on the TODO-list.

Keeping comments in the versioned files (exception is filter whith
"comment=" which was a 'simple' way to preserve them dating back to
version 1.5.15 release 20021115; before that release comments were lost
as in other files on rewrite) is more complex and I doubt it will be
added (anytime soon). That's on the TODO-list since 04-2008:

| o  comments in attributes get lost (we need to do something like we do for
|    the filter file)
|    [20080425 Urs Janssen <urs@tin.org>]

urs

It is possible that these filter rules got removed before I had
a chance to see them (it is quite uncommon that I closely look
at these config files). In my case, they are created automatically
by add_posted_to_filter=ON.

It appears that I have a more general rule, which is permanent:

group=*
case=0
score=hot
msgid=vinc17\.org

(though it is not guaranteed to work in all cases, if ever my msgid
format changes), and this could be another reason why I did not
notice the issue before.

It's strange that I did not notice that before. Perhaps I was blindly
copying my config from my own copy to the .tin/attributes file. But
the latest changes in my own copy were done 4 years ago, and I was
not sure that this copy matched the actual config on my new machine;
that's why I looked closer in order to merge the config if need be.

Note that the attributes file starts with

# Group attributes file V1.0.xx for the TIN newsreader
# Do not edit this comment block

so that I expected that anything after this comment block would
be preserved (or nicely converted).

- set the write flag if the file version is older than the expected version
- read the filter file rule by rule; if any expired rule is found skip
  that rule set the write flag
- when all rules have been read, check the write flag and
  write the file if needed.

This happens on every read of the file (e.g. also after 'E'dit filter
file).

I don't use add_posted_to_filter but filter on "my" Message-ID only.
The format didn't change since some time before 01.1997.

And there is EVIL_INSIDE which could be used to let tin
generate the Message-ID (based on login name + FQDN.
I doubt that will be more stable than the ones comming from your
server. It's only mentioned in doc/INSTALL like FORGERY
(which does alter the Message-ID scheeme if used together with
EVIL_INSIDE) for reasons.

[1] I have a work in progress patch (lacks the 'M'enu/
    tinrc option to enable it, currently it's a compile
    time "option") to keep expired rules in the filter
    (as they are, they are just not taken into account).
    Needs some testing, but I guess it will be available
    with the next snapshot/release.

The attribute file format is relative stable and there
is no expire mechanism like for filter rules. So chances
are high(er) that comments survive 1-3 years ,-)

That should read as "feel free to adjust any _options_ manually"
and no as "everthing in the file is preserved as is".
Same applies to the tinrc and serverrc and  ...

HTH,
urs

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
tin, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1109039@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it> (supplier of updated tin package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2025 22:59:51 +0200
Source: tin
Architecture: source
Version: 1:2.6.5~20250806-1
Distribution: experimental
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>
Changed-By: Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>
Closes: 1109039
Changes:
 tin (1:2.6.5~20250806-1) experimental; urgency=medium
 .
   * New upstream snapshot.
     - Adds the keep_expired_filters option. (Closes: #1109039)
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Git-Tag-Info: tag=58fd93f1c641b9d9d4d9501246b9582d17fd5b5a fp=272945cd836d38dfb7427e86cb3ec33ae1ded781
Git-Tag-Tagger: Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>
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