jtc@motcad.portal.com (J.T. Conklin) (08/06/90)
In article <985@barsoom.nhh.no> tih@barsoom.nhh.no (Tom Ivar Helbekkmo) writes: >OK, I should have said that it's impossible for *Posix-compliant* >System V machines to carry the newsgroup in question. Sys V has 14 >significant characters, and Posix demands that too long filenames not >be trunctated, but that an error be flagged instead. I believe that POSIX itself allows the system to go either way, but the U.S. Government's FIPS requires the error rather than truncation. >Yes, there's a >patch to SCO Unix to remove its Posix compliancy in this respect. No, >I don't want to apply it. I'd rather that the (never before violated) >14 character limit be accepted in the case of alt.games.g-b. I don't blame Tom for not wanting to turn off POSIX/FIPS complience --- its not even an option for some vendor's platforms, but I disagree with you about renaming alt.games.galactic-bloodshed. Let us instead take the time to fix "broken" news software. It wouldn't be too difficult, and would be of great benifit to a lot of news users and administrators. The following outlines one possible implementation. It dosn't really solve the problem, as newsgroup name segments must still be distinct within the first 14 characters, but it is a simple fix that solves the immediate difficulties. #ifdef _POSIX_SOURCE /* * global variables used for newsgroup name to pathname * conversion on POSIX/FIPS complient systems. */ long name_max; long no_trunc; #endif ... #ifdef _POSIX_SOURCE /* * Put this in the initialization or setup section * of news programs. */ name_max = pathconf(SPOOLDIR, _PC_LINK_MAX); no_trunc = pathconf(SPOOLDIR, _PC_NO_TRUNC); #endif ... #ifdef _POSIX_SOURCE /* * Put this code in the pathname building code. */ if(!no_trunc) { truncate each newsgroup name segment to "name_max" characters while building pathname. } else { #endif build pathname the way we always have. #ifdef _POSIX_SOURCE } #endif Whether or not a simple truncation scheme or a more complex method is used, surely fixing the news software is a more responsible approach than limiting newsgroup name segments to 14 characters on all systems. --jtc -- J.T. Conklin CADnet Inc, San Ramon California jtc@motcad.portal.com, ...!portal!motcad!jtc
tih@barsoom.nhh.no (Tom Ivar Helbekkmo) (08/06/90)
jtc@motcad.portal.com (J.T. Conklin) writes: >I don't blame Tom for not wanting to turn off POSIX/FIPS complience --- >its not even an option for some vendor's platforms, but I disagree with >you about renaming alt.games.galactic-bloodshed. Let us instead take >the time to fix "broken" news software. It wouldn't be too difficult, >and would be of great benifit to a lot of news users and administrators. I agree with you in essence. If we could have an official method (in B and C news alike) for handling long group names (and, for that matter, newsgroups with troublesome characters like '&' or '*' in their names), that would be nice. Until then, I don't really like the idea that I and other sites with POSIX/FIPS compliant Unix V implementations should have to go without a subset of newsgroups (so far just this *one* newsgroup, of course) during the months (at least) that it will take for such software changes to be implemented and released as official patches by the authors of B and C news. >[scheme for modifying news software deleted] >Whether or not a simple truncation scheme or a more complex method is >used, surely fixing the news software is a more responsible approach >than limiting newsgroup name segments to 14 characters on all systems. Again, I agree. But *right now*, myself and a couple of hundred people downstream of me are unable to read a.g.g-b (although of course not all of us even want to), because of it's current incompatibility with existing software. Besides, the group was created without further mention in alt.config by "root@taz.UUCP", an address it's impossible to send mail to. That in itself doesn't make me feel too horrible about suggesting a change. Let's fix the software *first*, and *then* start using the fixed version! -tih -- Tom Ivar Helbekkmo, NHH, Bergen, Norway. Telephone: +47-5-959205 tih@barsoom.nhh.no, thelbekk@norunit.bitnet, edb_tom@debet.nhh.no