[news.software.b] Strange Control Message!

jeff@cjsa.UUCP (C. Jeffery Small) (06/02/87)

I received the following strange mail notification from uucp - apparently
in response to a control message sent to our machine.  Did others receive
the same message, indicating that the control message was posted incorrectly
or do we have a local problem at our site?  We are running  news 2.11
patchlevel 8. (This is the first time something like this has happened here.)
========================= mail message =======================================

From uucp Tue Jun  2 02:52 EDT 1987
Subject: Problems with your active file

The following newsgroups are not valid and should be removed.
	news.announce.conferences

You can do this by executing the command:
	/usr/lib/news/rmgroup news.announce.conferences

The following newsgroups were missing and should be added.
	news.announce.conferences Calls for papers and conference announcements. (Mod)

You can do this by executing the command(s):
/usr/lib/news/inews -C news.announce.conferences </dev/null
/usr/lib/news/inews -C Calls </dev/null
/usr/lib/news/inews -C for </dev/null
/usr/lib/news/inews -C papers </dev/null
/usr/lib/news/inews -C and </dev/null
/usr/lib/news/inews -C conference </dev/null
/usr/lib/news/inews -C announcements. </dev/null
/usr/lib/news/inews -C (Mod) </dev/null

========================= end of message ====================================
Our active file contains the entry:

news.announce.conferences 00019 00019 m
=============================================================================


We also received a number of messages to change groups (including the
following) to unmoderated status.  Looks suspicious!  Are these correct?

comp.ai.digest, comp.binaries.amiga, ... comp.mail.elm, comp.mail.maps, ...
comp.newprod, comp.org.fidonet, ... comp.sources.games, comp.sources.mac,
comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.unix, comp.std.c, ... news.lists, ...

Thanks.
--
Jeffery Small          (203) 776-2000     UUCP:   ihnp4!---\
C. Jeffery Small and Associates	                            hsi!cjsa!jeff
123 York Street, New Haven, CT  06511          hao!noao!---/

sater@star.UUCP (06/04/87)

In article <220@cjsa.UUCP> jeff@cjsa.UUCP (C. Jeffery Small) writes:
>I received the following strange mail notification from uucp - apparently
>...
>/usr/lib/news/inews -C announcements. </dev/null
>/usr/lib/news/inews -C (Mod) </dev/null
>=============================================================================

I noticed something similar yesterday when I tried to send out a
checkgroups message for our local and national groups.  It comes
because the newsgroup and the description are separated by a *space*
instead of *tabs*.  The checkgroups script gets confused by this one.

			Hans van Staveren

dpz@aramis.rutgers.edu.UUCP (06/05/87)

> From: jeff@cjsa.UUCP (C. Jeffery Small)

> We also received a number of messages to change groups (including the
> following) to unmoderated status.  Looks suspicious!  Are these correct?
> 
> comp.ai.digest, comp.binaries.amiga, ... comp.mail.elm, comp.mail.maps, ...
> comp.newprod, comp.org.fidonet, ... comp.sources.games, comp.sources.mac,
> comp.sources.misc, comp.sources.unix, comp.std.c, ... news.lists, ...

As you probably have guessed, those control messages are *not*
correct.  We had a short stint with several people at various time
sending out newgroups for those groups, forgetting to flag them
moderated, and screwing up the works.  I would not doubt that you got
caught in one of these as well.

						dpz
-- 
David P. Zimmerman           rutgers!dpz           dpz@rutgers.edu

cyrill@scicom.UUCP (06/09/87)

>I received the following strange mail notification from uucp - apparently
>in response to a control message sent to our machine.  Did others receive
>the same message, indicating that the control message was posted incorrectly
>or do we have a local problem at our site?  We are running  news 2.11
>patchlevel 8. (This is the first time something like this has happened here.)

>	news.announce.conferences Calls for papers and conference announcements.
				 ^
This space must be a tab even through it's only one space. and you must make
sure that moderated is spelled out. It could be either of these will cause
problems. The space problem will not allow /usr/lib/news/checkgroup to strip
the text part past the ^ from the news group name, which would give the message
you received. Not spelling uout Moderated could give you errors also. (Not sure
about this.)  Remember, for newsgroups text, Spaces should be tabs

-- 
Cyro Lord	Alpha Comm. Dev. Corp.  2570 Sky Ranch Rd. Aurora, CO. 80011
UUCP		{isis,hao}!scicom!cyrill   nbires!apache!cyro