TruncatedReply: a compressed reply the server cut at a ".\r\n" fails in 2 s; ranges:dates samples plain

Eweka stops a compressed XOVER reply at the first ".\r\n" in its own
output (78 01 2e 0d 0a and nothing more), which some small replies begin
with; the text path waited for more until the reply timeout. ranges:dates
uses plain connections of its own instead of the pool.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>

lib/nntp/index.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,11 @@
-export { XoverClient, MissingArticle, parseOverviews, type Overview, type XoverClientOptions } from './xover_client.js'
+export {
+  XoverClient,
+  MissingArticle,
+  TruncatedReply,
+  parseOverviews,
+  type Overview,
+  type XoverClientOptions,
+} from './xover_client.js'
 export { parseXrefGroups } from './xref.js'
 export { parseGroupResponse, type GroupInfo } from './group.js'
 export { hedge, type Request, type Hedged } from './hedge.js'

lib/nntp/xover_client.ts

@@ -36,6 +36,14 @@ const DOT_LINE = Buffer.from('.\r\n')
  */
 /** The server doesn't have the article (430): taken down or expired. */
 export class MissingArticle extends Error {}
+/**
+ * A compressed reply the server cut short: it ends its compressed output at the first ".\r\n" in it, as if that
+ * were the terminator, and sends nothing more (Eweka; "78 01 2e 0d 0a" for 16 of 14k small XOVERs, LOG.md
+ * 2026-10-25 (105)). The same request without compression answers.
+ */
+export class TruncatedReply extends Error {}
+/** How long a compressed reply that doesn't inflate may stay silent before it counts as cut short. */
+const TRUNCATED_MS = 2_000
 
 export class XoverClient {
   private chunks: Buffer[] = []
@@ -244,6 +252,21 @@ export class XoverClient {
     if (this.failure && this.length === 0) throw this.failure
   }
 
+  /** As more(), but false when nothing came within `ms`. */
+  private async moreWithin(ms: number): Promise<boolean> {
+    if (this.failure) throw this.failure
+    const came = await new Promise<boolean>((resolve) => {
+      const timer = setTimeout(() => resolve(false), ms)
+      this.wake = () => {
+        clearTimeout(timer)
+        resolve(true)
+      }
+    })
+    this.wake = undefined
+    if (this.failure && this.length === 0) throw this.failure
+    return came
+  }
+
   private async line(): Promise<string> {
     while (true) {
       const at = this.buffer().indexOf('\r\n')
@@ -389,7 +412,14 @@ export class XoverClient {
           this.take(all.length)
           return { raw, text: inflated.toString('utf8') }
         } catch {
-          // ".\r\n" inside the compressed data: wait for more.
+          // ".\r\n" inside the compressed data: wait for more, but not for the reply timeout: the server may have
+          // cut its output there (TruncatedReply), and then nothing comes. Raw, the chunk is returned as it is
+          // and reported by the worker; the text is wanted here.
+          if (!(await this.moreWithin(TRUNCATED_MS))) {
+            this.take(all.length)
+            throw new TruncatedReply(`NNTP: compressed reply cut short after ${all.length} bytes`)
+          }
+          continue
         }
       }
       await this.more()