fair@dual.UUCP (Erik E. Fair) (07/06/84)
I recently sent out a sendsys control message to the sites in the San
Francisco Bay Area, and when I had gotten most of responses back again,
I wrote this set of comments and suggestions. At Mark Horton's
suggestion, I am posting this in net.news.adm for all the news
administrators out there in news land. These comments pertain to people
running 2.10 B news or later, and if you're running something older,
CONVERT! It will save all of us lots of pain. Some of the examples are
specific to the Bay Area, but if you read the whole article, it should
be easy for you to generalize from the specific examples.
One more thing worthy of note: The forth field in all examples is blank,
because I don't want to start a discussion on batching methods now.
That's fodder for a later treatise.
Some Rules for your `sys' file:
1) You don't need .all suffixes because they are assumed by the software.
Example:
dual:net::
is equivalent to
dual:net.all::
So in order for me to feed `idi' the groups net.tv, net.tv.soaps,
and net.tv.drwho, I do this:
idi:net.tv::
net.tv.all is implied by net.tv
This is mostly to keep the sys file more readable by human beings.
2) Your sys file should have at least two entries: Your own site, and
your netnews feed. If you forget yourself, the software will
complain bitterly. If you forget your news feed, none of the
things that you post will ever leave your system. For the case of
amd70 feeding dual:
dual:net,fa,ba,ca,na,usa,mod,to.dual::
amd70:net,fa,ba,ca,na,usa,mod,to.amd70::
3) The entry for your news feed should NOT have the `L' flag in the
flags field (third field of a sys file entry). This is particularly
important for sites that are feeding someone else. For the case
of amd70 feeding dual, and dual feeding qantel:
dual:net,fa,ba,ca,na,usa,mod,to.dual::
amd70:net,fa,ba,ca,na,usa,mod,to.amd70::
qantel:net,fa,ba,ca,na,usa,mod,to.qantel::
If I put the `L' flag in the entry for amd70, that means we only
send them things posted by dual. Anything that qantel posted would
arrive at dual, but go no further.
4) You can have more than one line per site. Example: we send our locally
generated articles to fortune, because they feed a lot of sites,
and sending it direct will speed up propagation. But we also
send them anything we get in the `ba' and `mod' newsgroups from
anywhere. This is what fortune's entry looks like:
fortune:to.fortune,net,fa,ca,usa,na:L:
fortune:ba,mod::
However, this could just as easily be:
fortune:to.fortune:L:
fortune:net:L:
fortune:fa:L:
fortune:ca:L:
fortune:usa:L:
fortune:na:L:
fortune:ba::
fortune:mod::
I think you get the idea. One side note: restrictions should be
on the same line as the catagory they restrict e.g.
fortune:net,!net.auto,!net.cooks::
will work fine, but
fortune:net::
fortune:!net.auto,!net.cooks::
will most definetly NOT work.
5) Comments are very helpful. The sys file may have comments beginning
with the `#' character. Ex:
# Fortune Systems, Redwood City, California
# Send them locally posted articles + everything in ba, mod
#
fortune:to.fortune,net,fa,ca,usa,na:L:
fortune:ba,mod::
6) Distributions. Not everyone has all the distributions in their sys files.
Here is a quick list of those newsgroup catagories and distributions
that we should all know about:
# Newsgroup catagories:
# net - stuff network wide
# fa - stuff from the ARPANET
# mod - Moderated newsgroups
# ba - San Francisco Bay Area regional groups
#
# Distribution catagories:
# ca - should go to sites in California
# usa - should go to sites in the USA
# na - should go to sites in North America
Here's what our sys line for ihnp4 (Naperville, IL) looks like:
ihnp4:to.ihnp4,net,fa,mod,usa,na:L:
Harking back to an earlier one, Here's fortune again:
fortune:to.fortune,net,fa,ca,usa,na:L:
fortune:ba,mod::
Sticking in a distribution should in theory restrict how far a
given article goes, no matter what newsgroup it's in. Notice
that we don't send ihnp4 stuff from the `ba' newsgroups or the `ca'
distribution. So, I can post an article in net.general, with
the `ca' distribution so ihnp4 won't get it and fortune will.
The catch is that this only works if all us support it.
In the general case of any random USENET site, you should
probably know about a distribution for your company or
organization, your `area' (The San Francisco Bay Area is one
example), your state or province, your country, and your
continent (It's a sign of how big the USENET is when I have to
say `country' and `continent' to keep this message generic) in
addition to supporting any local or regional newsgroups that
you may have.
To Summarize a la chuqui:
Remove those .all suffixes, they only clutter the file.
Two entries minimum to get out: You & Your Feed.
The entry for your feed must NOT have the `L' flag.
You can have more than one entry per site.
Comments, Please!
Put those distributions in.
Further comments and observations are welcome from all parties...
Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucb-arpa.ARPA
dual!fair@Berkeley.ARPA
{ihnp4,ucbvax,cbosgd,decwrl,amd70,fortune,zehntel}!dual!fair
Dual Systems Corporation, Berkeley, Californiaphil@amd.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (07/15/84)
I kinda like using the "ME" entry in the sys file. That is,
instead of using my site's name, I just use "ME" and don't
have to worry about it if my site's name changes.
A small thing perhaps, but nice anyway.
--
Phil Ngai (408) 982-6554 {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd!phil