pag@sri-unix (11/27/82)
Not too long ago John Levine (ima!johnl) submitted the sources to his news batching software to net.sources. I have since modified them slightly to be more general, and have found batching to be an unqualified success in getting rid of uucp problems. In order to encourage universal use of this system, I am submitting my revised version to net.sources. I heartily recommend as many sites as possible to install it. --peter gross ucbvax!hplabs!hao!pag seismo!hao!pag
bstempleton (11/28/82)
People who install batching systems should make sure they don't slow news down too much. If somebody installs news batching with a 1 hour delay along all the sites in a 14 site chain, we add a significant delay to news. The only valid way to solve this is to fix uucp and uux to not do as much stuff with each file. You get the same result, only less kludged and with less delay. Shorter delays mean less garbage articles because nobody posts 300 explanations of what foobar means.
mark (11/28/82)
Batching can make a significant performance difference if you run UUCP. I wish someone would dig into UUCP and figure out why it's so inefficient and fix it. We batch news on cbosgd for a different reason: we don't want the system loaded down during the day when people are working. We do flush out news every 2 hours except during the day. But we aren't in the backbone. Those sites that are in the backbone should be encouraged to either not batch news, or to flush the queues as often as possible (every hour is probably perfectly adequate). Those sites on spurs should take into account the needs of the sites they feed, but batching to improve performance or cut down on phone bills is probably a very reasonable thing to do, provided the delay inserted is not more than several hours. Mark
wagner (11/28/82)
I agree with Brad. Perhaps the same amount of effort spent finding out why UUCP was slow would yield a faster, more stream-lined UUCP. Adding more layers of complication in the form of batching seems like a step in the wrong direction. (note that I am not volunteering, since I have neither time nor expertise to do either) Michael Wagner, UTCS