[news.software.b] Cnews startup woes

toad@well.sf.ca.us (Anton C. Shepps) (12/07/90)

I'm setting up a new site with C news, and I'm having trouble understanding
how things work.

Running SCO Unix.  I configured C news to not worry about free space, and
the spacefor we wound up with is the simple echo "100" type.

I took a checkgroups message from another site, edited it, and provided it
as input to inews, as the checkgroups header suggests.  The checkgroups
message became a control message in the control group, but nothing else
happened as a result.

I edited the list of groups and provided it as standard input to the
checkgroups script in NEWSBIN.  It updated the newsgroups file just fine,
and several hundreds relaynews (?) processes were spawned.  I had edited
the checkgroups script to actually call inews with the newgroup message
instead of just mailing the long list to the news administrator.  OK, now
hundreds of newgroup control messages are in group control, but the active
file was unaffected and no new directories were created under /usr/spool/news.

Does C news ignore control messages?  Do I have to add all the groups manually
using addgroup?  Should I be concerned that I'm using the dummy spacefor?
While the newgroup messages were being created, there were several hundred
messages under /tmp saying something about ?news not having enough space
to be happy -- uh, I can't remember the exact message, and no errors or mail
messages were generated.
--
- Tony Shepps 
 - toad@well.sf.ca.us 
  - In the works: The Cellar, South Philly nixpub and BBS at +1 215 336 9503

henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (12/07/90)

In article <22002@well.sf.ca.us> toad@well.sf.ca.us (Anton C. Shepps) writes:
>... I had edited
>the checkgroups script to actually call inews with the newgroup message
>instead of just mailing the long list to the news administrator...

Uh, why are you playing complicated games with control messages just to
create groups on your own system?  By far the simplest method is to get
a copy of your neighbor's active file, edit the numbers down (second
field to 00000, third to 00001), and install it.  If you want the
directories created -- and some newsreaders get unhappy if they are
missing -- just run "adddirs" afterward.

If you really must do it from checkgroups, why not make checkgroups invoke
"addgroup"?  There's no need to go through inews, and (as you found out)
that can cause problems.

Personally, I would avoid checkgroups entirely, since it is a vaguely-
specified mess.
-- 
"The average pointer, statistically,    |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry