root@gold.sub.org (Christian Seyb) (03/03/91)
Winchester drives are getting cheaper and cheaper. This makes it very easy to have a large enough partition to hold news for several weeks. This is not possible, due to the limitation of <64k inodes (at least on sysv). Is there anybody out there who has solved this problem? Having a database for every newsgroup would reduce the number of files to a managable quantity. Of course, the newsreaders and the utilities need to understand this as well. Has this been implemented so far? regards Christian -- Christian Seyb | Internet: cs@gold.de.intel.com uucp login: nuucp Fuchsweg 86 | Mailbox: +49-8106-34593 24h 300-19200 PEP/V.32 8011 Baldham | +49-8106-34692 24h 300-19200 HST -- Wer nach allen Seiten offen ist, kann nicht ganz dicht sein.
nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (03/04/91)
In article <1991Mar03.111942.12658@gold.sub.org> root@gold.sub.org (Christian Seyb) writes:
Having a database for every newsgroup would reduce the number of files
to a managable quantity. Of course, the newsreaders and the utilities
need to understand this as well. Has this been implemented so far?
I outlined a solution using NNTP on news.software.nntp. The
newsreaders aren't a problem because they just use the NNTP protocol.
Now all we need is for someone to program it. I doubt that I could do
it because I am lacking sufficient Unix wizardry.
--
--russ <nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu> I'm proud to be a humble Quaker.
It's better to get mugged than to live a life of fear -- Freeman Dyson
I joined the League for Programming Freedom, and I hope you'll join too.henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (03/05/91)
In article <1991Mar03.111942.12658@gold.sub.org> root@gold.sub.org (Christian Seyb) writes: >This is not possible, due to the limitation of <64k inodes (at least on >sysv). > >Is there anybody out there who has solved this problem? Well, 4.2BSD did... >Having a database for every newsgroup would reduce the number of files >to a managable quantity. Of course, the newsreaders and the utilities >need to understand this as well. Has this been implemented so far? This has been talked about frequently, but as far as I'm aware nobody has yet done it. Revising the format of the article storage is a terrible job unless you allow *only* NNTP access (which has its own drawbacks) because so many things know about it. While I sympathize with people who are stuck with old systems, I don't think this is a very good reason to run off and implement a database system, especially given how painful the transition would be. When you start spending vast amounts of time, effort, and pain working around limitations of the underlying system, it is time to upgrade said system. -- "But this *is* the simplified version | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology for the general public." -S. Harris | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
urlichs@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs) (03/07/91)
In news.software.b, article <1991Mar03.111942.12658@gold.sub.org>,
root@gold.sub.org (Christian Seyb) writes:
< Winchester drives are getting cheaper and cheaper. This makes it very
< easy to have a large enough partition to hold news for several weeks.
< This is not possible, due to the limitation of <64k inodes (at least on
< sysv).
<
< Is there anybody out there who has solved this problem?
<
Yes -- create multiple partitions on the winchester, and mount them where you
need them.
Symlinks help here, but you can get by without them if you allocate your
disk space carefully.
Don't forget to update spacefor so that it reports the minimum free space on
any of these partitions. (Putting in.coming somewhere else definitely helps
here; unfortunately it's hardcoded in too many places in C News. Use symlinks
if you have them.)
--
Matthias Urlichs -- urlichs@smurf.sub.org -- urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de /(o\
Humboldtstrasse 7 - 7500 Karlsruhe 1 - FRG -- +49+721+621127(0700-2330) \o)/alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) (03/11/91)
urlichs@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs) writes: >In news.software.b, article <1991Mar03.111942.12658@gold.sub.org>, > root@gold.sub.org (Christian Seyb) writes: >< Winchester drives are getting cheaper and cheaper. This makes it very >< easy to have a large enough partition to hold news for several weeks. >< This is not possible, due to the limitation of <64k inodes (at least on >< sysv). >< >< Is there anybody out there who has solved this problem? >< >Yes -- create multiple partitions on the winchester, and mount them where you >need them. >Symlinks help here, but you can get by without them if you allocate your >disk space carefully. I was under the impression that this would break crossreferencing, since articles posted to multiple groups are stored as one file with multiple hard links. Is C news clever enough to symlink when the groups are on different partitions? If not, how can this work? --- Alexis Rosen Owner/Sysadmin, PANIX Public Access Unix, NY {cmcl2,apple}!panix!alexis
root@gold.sub.org (0000-Admin(0000)) (03/11/91)
In <1991Mar10.205041.10534@panix.uucp> alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) writes: >I was under the impression that this would break crossreferencing, since >articles posted to multiple groups are stored as one file with multiple >hard links. Is C news clever enough to symlink when the groups are on >different partitions? If not, how can this work? I just installed CNEWS on Unix 386 5.4 with 2 partitions for news. Cnews does create symlinks for crosspostings. So far (after 2 days - which doesn't mean a lot), I have seen no problems. regards Christian -- Christian Seyb | Internet: cs@gold.de.intel.com uucp login: nuucp Fuchsweg 86 | Mailbox: +49-8106-34593 24h 300-19200 PEP/V.32 8011 Baldham | +49-8106-34692 24h 300-19200 HST -- Wer nach allen Seiten offen ist, kann nicht ganz dicht sein.
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (03/12/91)
In article <1991Mar10.205041.10534@panix.uucp> alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) writes: >I was under the impression that this would break crossreferencing, since >articles posted to multiple groups are stored as one file with multiple >hard links. Is C news clever enough to symlink when the groups are on >different partitions? If not, how can this work? C News will try to do a symlink if a hard link fails. You really need to invoke expire/doexpire with the -l option if you're doing this a lot, though, since expire has no easy way of coping with the situation unassisted. -- "But this *is* the simplified version | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology for the general public." -S. Harris | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
urlichs@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs) (03/12/91)
In news.software.b, article <1991Mar10.205041.10534@panix.uucp>, alexis@panix.uucp (Alexis Rosen) writes: < urlichs@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs) writes: < >< < >Yes -- create multiple partitions on the winchester, and mount them where you < >need them. < >Symlinks help here, but you can get by without them if you allocate your < >disk space carefully. < < I was under the impression that this would break crossreferencing, since < articles posted to multiple groups are stored as one file with multiple < hard links. Is C news clever enough to symlink when the groups are on < different partitions? If not, how can this work? < Oops, forgot about crossposts. C News does create symlinks when necessary. It creates the first article in the newsgroup mentioned first on the Newsgroups: line and symlinks all others to it. It copies the article if you don't have symlinks. (I think.) You can also tell expire not to remove the first link to an article until all other links are gone, which is just what the symlink stuff needs to work correctly. RTFM for details. -- Matthias Urlichs -- urlichs@smurf.sub.org -- urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de /(o\ Humboldtstrasse 7 - 7500 Karlsruhe 1 - FRG -- +49-721-621127(0700-2330) \o)/