lwv27@CAS.BITNET (08/25/90)
From browsing the news.software.b and other related groups, I see references to either needing to do things (like build the software as user of news, etc.) or configure things which are perhaps not exactly obvious. Assume that you are sitting down to help a novice news installer take on C News for the very first time. What would YOU recommend ? -- Larry W. Virden Business: UUCP: osu-cis!chemabs!lwv27 INET: lwv27%cas.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.Edu Personal: 674 Falls Place, Reynoldsburg,OH 43068-1614 Proline: lvirden@pro-tcc.cts.com America Online: lvirden CIS: [75046,606]
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (08/26/90)
In article <9008251535.AA15538@jade.berkeley.edu> lwv27@CAS.BITNET writes: >From browsing the news.software.b and other related groups, I see references >to either needing to do things (like build the software as user of news, etc.) >or configure things which are perhaps not exactly obvious. Many sysadmins' experience is that if you follow the directions, it works. (For example, the current version is fairly explicit about the matter of what uid to do things as.) However, it is true that our documentation is not really very good for someone who's never dealt with news administration before. Our usual suggestion is that you first get and read the Nutshell Handbook on the subject: "Managing UUCP and Usenet", by Tim O'Reilly and Grace Todino, O'Reilly & Associates, 1989, ISBN 0-937175-48-X. This latest edition covers C News as well as B News. It's not perfect but it's lots better than nothing. Inquiries to nuts@ora.com or uunet!ora!nuts. -- Committees do harm merely by existing. | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology -Freeman Dyson | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
cdr@brahms.amd.com (Carl Rigney) (08/26/90)
In article <1990Aug25.225630.6645@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: >In article <9008251535.AA15538@jade.berkeley.edu> lwv27@CAS.BITNET writes: >>From browsing the news.software.b and other related groups, I see references >>to either needing to do things (like build the software as user of news, etc.) >>or configure things which are perhaps not exactly obvious. > >Many sysadmins' experience is that if you follow the directions, it works. > > "Managing UUCP and Usenet", by Tim O'Reilly and Grace Todino, > O'Reilly & Associates, 1989, ISBN 0-937175-48-X. I recently sent C news to a beginning sysadmin who wanted to run it. He says this book is very detailed on B news but rather vague in places on C news (occassional handwaving) - its still worth getting for a C News Admin, but its no substitute for reading the documenation that comes with C news. Let me echo Henry's remark that if you read the instructions and follow them carefully, C news works just fine. I'd strongly recommend reading all the doc, man & notebook files as well, and after installing it look through all the files in ~news to understand what each one does. It makes things ever so much easier later. The second thing every C news admin should do is learn Perl, because it's so useful for all sorts of random hackery and customization. (Although C news uses not a drop of Perl at the moment.) B news admins should switch to C news, then learn Perl. A news admins should seek professional help. :-) -- Carl Rigney cdr@amd.com
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (08/27/90)
In article <1990Aug26.075652.10662@amd.com> cdr@brahms.amd.com (Carl Rigney) writes: >> "Managing UUCP and Usenet", by Tim O'Reilly and Grace Todino, >> O'Reilly & Associates, 1989, ISBN 0-937175-48-X. > >I recently sent C news to a beginning sysadmin who wanted to run it. >He says this book is very detailed on B news but rather vague in places >on C news (occassional handwaving) - its still worth getting ... Yes, it is basically a B News book lightly revised to cover C News as well. It does do a reasonable job on the common underlying concepts, which I'm inclined to think are more often the trouble spots. There are schemes afoot for from-scratch novice-oriented C News docs, but don't expect immediate miracles. >The second thing every C news admin should do is learn Perl, because it's >so useful for all sorts of random hackery and customization. (Although >C news uses not a drop of Perl at the moment.) ... We're likely to continue avoiding Perl, actually. We've never really gotten into it -- we tend to prefer awk+sh for random hackery -- and many systems do not have it. -- Committees do harm merely by existing. | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology -Freeman Dyson | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
gerry@jts.com (Gerry Roderick Singleton ) (08/27/90)
In article <1990Aug25.225630.6645@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes: }In article <9008251535.AA15538@jade.berkeley.edu> lwv27@CAS.BITNET writes: }>From browsing the news.software.b and other related groups, I see references [stuff deleted] }Many sysadmins' experience is that if you follow the directions, it works. }(For example, the current version is fairly explicit about the matter }of what uid to do things as.) } }However, it is true that our documentation is not really very good for } ... [more deleted] } Henry, The various READMEs seem to promise a Cookbook that covers most of these questions, what's the status on such a work? If it's a case of insufficient manpower, I'm certain Cnews admins electronically near utzoo would help. I certainly am willing. Any comment from Geoff or you regarding a Cookbook? ger -- -- G. Roderick Singleton, System and Network Administrator, JTS Computers {uunet | geac | torsqnt}!gerry@jtsv16.jts.com
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (08/29/90)
In article <1990Aug27.163534.6689@jts.com> gerry@jts.com (Gerry Roderick Singleton ) writes: >The various READMEs seem to promise a Cookbook that covers most of these >questions, what's the status on such a work? ... Nothing much has happened on it yet. One reason for holding off a bit is some contemplated changes that would affect it somewhat; we would really like to try to clear our to-do lists out before undertaking a major effort on documenting the details. -- TCP/IP: handling tomorrow's loads today| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology OSI: handling yesterday's loads someday| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry