> 
> How embarassing. After a week of failed attempts, I manage to revive
> my Coda server 10 minutes after asking for help on this list. The
> problem's cause was completely unrelated to Coda.
> 
> I imagine a rescue utility for digging though /vicepa might be handy
> in an emergency. Fortunately, I am no longer in need of rescue.
> I think I'll go make a backup now...
> 
> Jeff

Hi Jeff,

The stuff in /vicepa is only the data part of what is stored on the servers
the meta-data (directory information, acl's, etc.) is all stored in the RVM.
When a server really fails to boot up, it is consistently due to corrupted
directory entries. Which is why we've spent some considerate amount of effort 
cleaning up the directory handling code.

The `norton' application is a tool to directly poke into the RVM internals, 
and makes it possible to create missing directory entries or remove corrupted 
volumes/directory entries. It is not yet an easy to use or well documented 
program (until recently `help' even gave the response, `unknown command, use
help for more information'), but it does do the job of getting the server 
booted when all else has failed.

I'm glad you managed to get things going again, and we didn't have to lead
you through a norton session :) And you know, maybe someday we either have
a utility to recover files from /vicepa, or have servers which can handle 
mass-corruption of their metadata without blinking.

CU,
	Jan