[comp.unix.xenix] Administering a News system part time

zeeff@b-tech.UUCP (Jon Zeeff) (10/26/87)

I been running news on a system with limited disk space for quite awhile.
Some things I have done to automate news maintenance:

1) An expire script is used that keeps expiring news until there is a certain
   amount of space free.  A fixed period like 14 days is not used.

2) Outgoing news is limited to n MB/day.  This prevents some 
   of my neighbors from being swamped when things get backed up.  

3) News is spooled "on the fly".  A daemon process keeps checking the amount of
   news spooled and only spools more when it goes below a certain level.

4) There is a daemon that cuts off incoming uucp transfers when disk space
   falls below a certain level.  News/uucp doesn't seem to handle
   no space very well.

The combination of all these things makes it pretty hassle free.

-- 
Jon Zeeff           		Branch Technology,
uunet!umix!b-tech!zeeff  	zeeff%b-tech.uucp@umix.cc.umich.edu

rwhite@nusdhub.UUCP (Robert C. White Jr.) (10/27/87)

In article <3805@b-tech.UUCP>, zeeff@b-tech.UUCP (Jon Zeeff) writes:
> I been running news on a system with limited disk space for quite awhile.
> Some things I have done to automate news maintenance:
> 2) Outgoing news is limited to n MB/day.  This prevents some 
>    of my neighbors from being swamped when things get backed up.  
> 3) News is spooled "on the fly".  A daemon process keeps checking the amount of
>    news spooled and only spools more when it goes below a certain level.

I have a unique solution for you... Make a file [like /usr/lib/news/makesp]
with the following contents:

/usr/lib/news/sendbatch -c ${UU_MACHINE:?'Bad Machine Name'}

NOTE: UU_MACHINE may be called something else durring uuxqt on your machine.

The person who wants their mail "uux"es the makesp on your system,
waits a few minutes, and then calls back with some measealy request
[if necessary] the program they run to pickup mail is something
like:
if uux not outstanding
	uux -s/usr/lib/news/LCK..sysname "sysname!makesp"
if uux result positive
	sleep [some few minutes]
	/usr/lib/uucp/uucico -r sysname

With this type of "mail pickup" script no spooling ever takes place for
a system that is not responding.  The remote site has to "request"
their feed every time.  The only standing disk usage is the "batch"
file.  Sleeping sites don't eat any disk space.

I didn't include particualrs because this will vary site to site
and remember that this is two connects, not one, but the savings are
good for expensive hops.

Rob.