bytebug@pertec.UUCP (06/24/84)
Awhile back, I suggested the need to check your "active" file to see if it
was up-to-date. The overwhelming response I got back was that everything
was taken care of automatically, and that your "active" file would never
be wrong.
That obviously explains why people still post to net.trivia. :-)
If you have a more enlightened attitude, and would like to check your
"active" file, you will find below a shell script which will extract
the list of valid newsgroups from the bi-monthly posting and compare it
with the newsgroups listed in your active file. Redirect the
master-newsgroup article as standard input. Standard output will be a
listing from "diff" with lines preceded by a "<" for newsgroups that
you have that aren't in the master list, and lines preceded by ">" for
newsgroups that you aren't getting because they aren't listed in your
master file.
One thing that might make this more useful would be if the master
list of groups were expanded to include some of the local newsgroups.
For instance, "la.general" will be listed as a bogus group since it
isn't on the master list.
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checkactive
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sed -e '1,/----------/d' \
-e '/^$/d' \
-e '/^[\* A-Z-]/d' \
-e '/^ /d' \
-e 's/^ \(.*\)/\1/' \
-e 's/^\(.*\) .*/\1/' | sort >/tmp/act$$
awk '{print $1}' /usr/lib/news/active | sort | diff -b - /tmp/act$$
rm /tmp/act$$
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