[net.news.b] sys file help needed

larry (09/02/82)

Well, after conquering the problem we were having on that PDP 11/70,
I've stumbled upon something else.

Picture this--  on one machine (a vax)  I have the netnews system that
the "average users" access  --  and my private version that I use for
testing.  Both are entirely seperate, NO common files or dirs.  Here
comes the tricky part.  I would like to set up a direct feed between two
netnews systems.  Indeed I have the arrangement working IF I go thru the
local net (the "rje" usend net).  This seems rather silly to spool off a
job just to go from one corner of the machine to another.  However, when
I change the command portion of the "sys" file entry to call my
private 'rnews' directly, I get Article lock up's.  If I switch to using
redirection to save the file, then cat the file into my 'rnews' it
works.

Is there some reason why I can't have an UNRELATED inews and rnews
running at the same time??

	thanks,
		Larry Marek
		 ihuxw!larry
		  Bell Labs, Naperville

mark (09/02/82)

What's happening is that inews creates a lock file in /tmp on a
per-article-id basis.  If two inewes are running at the same time
with the same /tmp, they will lock each other out.

There is no provision for a configurable lock file directory in
inews, because this situation was never anticipated.  However,
it seems straightforward to move one of the lock directories
to /usr/tmp or somewhere else.