phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (11/18/86)
Very frequently (too frequently) I get msgs addressed to usenet from
someone creating a newsgroup on their site which really didn't need to
go out to the whole world.
I create groups by editing the active file. I think the documentation
suggests using inews -C. Is there any reason for telling people to use
inews when editing the active file is about the same amount of work
and less likely to send out unnecessary msgs?
By the way, I started editing the active file when I turned off auto
newgroups and rmgroups and inews -C stopped working. It's not much
different in terms of time.
--
The distance from the North end of Vietnam to the South end is about
the same as the distance from New York to Florida.
Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720
UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,hplabs,allegra}!amdcad!phil
ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.compage@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page) (11/18/86)
phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) wrote in article <13792@amdcad.UUCP>: >I create groups by editing the active file. I think the documentation >suggests using inews -C. I used to do the same, but would always forget to chown the file back to news (I would edit it as root). A few hours later inews would have sent me 400 mail messages saying that there was a problem with the active file, and drop the news on the floor. I noticed under 2.11 when I did an ``inews -C ul.foo'', it expanded to: inews -c newgroup ul.foo -d ulctl [...etc] which is really what I wanted to do anyway (ulctl is our distribution code for UL-specific control messages). If you don't want to send to all your sites, use a ``local'' distribution. >Is there any reason for telling people to use >inews when editing the active file is about the same amount of work >and less likely to send out unnecessary msgs? Using inews allows you to forget the news directory layout, edits the active file, creates the spool directory and runs as the right user, so you don't have to remember to chown things when done editing. ..Bob -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. ulowell!page, page@ulowell.CSNET
kre@munnari.oz (Robert Elz) (11/18/86)
Adding/removing newsgroups by editing the active file directly is fine if you know what you are doing, and watch for (and prevent somehow) activity from the news system while you are doing it. In 2.11, inews -C works properly, its probably slightly easier than editing active (a toss up maybe), so I'd recommend inews -C. Versions of news before 2.11 had anti-social versions of inews -C that insisted on broadcasting the newgroup message that should have been local. So, if you have 2.11, use inews -C, you're less likely to break your news system. If you don't have 2.11, get it! Robert Elz seismo!munnari!kre
phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (11/19/86)
In article <770@ulowell.UUCP> page@ulowell.UUCP (Bob Page) writes: >>Is there any reason for telling people to use >>inews when editing the active file is about the same amount of work >>and less likely to send out unnecessary msgs? > >Using inews allows you to forget the news directory layout, edits the >active file, creates the spool directory and runs as the right user, >so you don't have to remember to chown things when done editing. Ah, you don't have to create the spool directory. i/rnews does that automatically. I leave the active file 666 mode so I don't have to su to edit it. Sometimes I worry about it but we haven't had any problems so far. It is true, however, that the format of the active file is very particular and minor mistakes could cause problems. Inews seems a bit less fragile. -- The distance from the North end of Vietnam to the South end is about the same as the distance from New York to Florida. Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,hplabs,allegra}!amdcad!phil ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.dec.com
dsp@ptsfa.UUCP (David St.Pierre) (11/19/86)
In article <13806@amdcad.UUCP> phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) writes: > >Ah, you don't have to create the spool directory. i/rnews does that >automatically. I leave the active file 666 mode so I don't have to su rn used to complain if there was an entry in active but no spool directory. That has since been fixed. Try maintaining 6-7 sites manually. Editing the active file on each of them would get old in a real hurry. Then you figure that you'll wait a week or so and do them all at once. Or once a month. But then I know you're only maintaining one site ... -- David St. Pierre 415/823-6800 {ihnp4,lll-crg,qantel,pyramid}!ptsfa!dsp Picasso wasn't born in a day.