[comp.sources.d] vn - NNTP & people who don't get alt.sources.

bobm@rtech.UUCP (01/16/88)

NNTP - Before anybody expends effort in this area, I've done it, and
plan to post same in a few weeks.  I have one other site trying it out,
and I'd be willing to have a few more trial sites.  Our NNTP configuration
is a trifle odd, and I'd like to have the makefile / configuration reflect
normal places to pick things up.

Our use of NNTP here is odd because we keep multiple installations -
USENET on one machine, some local newsgroups on others.  Because of this,
the NNTP'ed vn has command line control of host & .newsrc file (what
they did with rrn, inews, etc was cover them with shell scripts which
invoke different executables for different hosts and keep different
 .newsrc's).  The command args for doing this are probably of little
use for "normal" sites, but you'll get them, and may safely ignore them.

The NNTP stuff will consist of a new std.c, config_std.h, Makefile and
some notes.  It will be compatible with the posted stuff either with or
without the patches as any changes to the files other than std.c were
independent of std.c.  Fixes affecting std.c will be reflected in the
new one.  With the new std.c, you will be able to make either NNTP or
non-NNTP versions.

A few people running version 12/86 figured out there was a new version
when they saw my patch posting - apparently alt.sources doesn't get
everywhere.  The program, hopefully WITH those patches should be coming out
in comp.sources.unix.

Thanks to Dennis for the XENIX notes - I'd also make sure I got the 1/88
patches - fixing the oversize allocation in hash.c is probably important
for a machine with 16-bit integers, as it could overflow fairly easily
without the fix.  You can look in tune.h at the RECLEN parameter to
fiddle with the required stack size.  I don't know the maximum number
of RECLEN buffers which will wind up on the stack at once - without
digging into it, I know it's more than 6 and I expect it's less than 12.