[news.admin] NFS Shared news and postnews

berger@datacube.datacube.com (Bob Berger) (06/03/89)

We have our single /usr/spool/news and /usr/local/lib/news shared by
all our suns via nfs mounting. This works perfectly when reading news.

If you run postnews from a subsidary machine, it complains that the
machine I am posting from is not in the sys file and it tries to run
uux to post stuff. I think it may even get posted, but it complains
alot.

Of course if I postnews on the main machine that communicates to
usenet, postnews works fine.

What is the correct way to handle this situation?
I am running postnews *SccsId = "@(#)postnews.c       1.37    1/15/89"

			Thanks,
				Bob Berger 

Datacube Inc. Systems / Software Group	4 Dearborn Rd. Peabody, Ma 01960
VOICE:	508-535-6644;	FAX: (508) 535-5643;  TWX: (710) 347-0125
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pleasant@porthos.rutgers.edu (Mel Pleasant) (06/06/89)

In article <170@datacube.datacube.com> berger@datacube.datacube.com (Bob Berger) writes:

> If you run postnews from a subsidary machine, it complains that the
> machine I am posting from is not in the sys file ...

In your sys file, use `ME:' as the first part of the entry which
describes the local system.  Both the server and subsidiary systems'
inewses will take this entry as the "local" entry.
-- 

                                  Mel Pleasant
 {backbone}!rutgers!pleasant   pleasant@rutgers.edu     mpleasant@zodiac.bitnet

kls@ditka.UUCP (Karl Swartz) (06/08/89)

In article <170@datacube.datacube.com> berger@datacube.datacube.com (Bob Berger) writes:
>We have our single /usr/spool/news and /usr/local/lib/news shared by
>all our suns via nfs mounting. This works perfectly when reading news.
>
>If you run postnews from a subsidary machine, it complains that the
>machine I am posting from is not in the sys file and it tries to run
>uux to post stuff. I think it may even get posted, but it complains
>alot.

Probably the right way to do it is to use rrn or something like that.
When I encountered this same problem, though, I found a hack that got
it working without having to obtain and install any new software.  If
your time is scarce you may wish to give it a try.

First, change the sys entry for your system to use the name ME, e.g.

    ME:all::

This is a wildcard which says "the system reading this sys file, no
matter who it is".  That solves the problem of problem of all the
complaints and stuff probably not going out.

Now recompile your news with the SPOOLNEWS option.  At least I think
that's the one.  Whatever says spool all incoming news.  Now posts
just get spool, for later processing.  Your news hub machine should
process any spooled news frequently so the local posts are processed
quickly.  I think I used 15 minutes.

While there may still be holes in this hack that just never bit me,
the only problem I found was that some users whined about their posts
not showing up immediately on the local machines and groups.  (They
tended to shut up when I offered to let them fix it and become the
de facto news babysitter.)

-- 
Karl Swartz		|UUCP	{ames!hc!rt1,decvax!zinn}!ditka!kls
1-505/667-7777 (work)	|ARPA	rt1!ditka!kls@hc.dspo.gov
1-505/672-3113 (home)	|BIX	kswartz
"I never let my schooling get in the way of my education."  (Twain)