tar@sirius.cis.ksu.edu (Tim Ramsey) (12/23/89)
Hi all. Recently, I changed my news transport from B 2.11.17 / nntp 1.5.3
to C news (14-Sep-1989) / nntp 1.5.7. My OS is sysV 2.1.2, and I've #defined
DBM, CNEWS, and BATCHED_INPUT in ./nntp/common/conf.h. I ran into some
gotchas, most of which I managed to get around. I'm curious if others with
similar setups have had the same problems, and if so, how they handled them.
First, ./nntp/server/spawn.c assumes that the spawnee is execl'able. If the
spawnee is a shell script and your kernel doesn't understand the "#!" magic
number, this isn't true. I found this when I tried to post an article and
the NNTP server attempted to spawn inews. With B news, this works since
inews is object code. With C news, it's a shell script.
My fix was to check if errno == ENOEXEC (exec format error). If so, I spawn
/bin/sh with argv[1] set to the pathname of the spawnee. I had to make this
change in batch.c since newsrun is a shell script too.
Unfortunately, this fix caused the fake inews to block for a long time
waiting for the server to respond to the POST command. The server seemed
to be blocked waiting for input from the spawned process. I was too frazzled
from the fight with C news to track this down, so I just ifdef'd out the code
that reads stdout from the spawned process. As a result, posting no longer
causes the fake inews to block, but the user does not get to see any errors
returned by inews on the server.
Second, Cnews allows a "x" or "=news.group" in the active file. I attempted
to use the "x" flag to block some unwanted groups (like alt.sex.bestiality).
When I started up rn, it asked me if I wanted to add the new group
"alt.sex.bestiality" to my .newsrc. This is not what I had intended.
I haven't gotten around to fixing this yet. When I do, I'll probably have
to hunt around the server code for things that deal with the active file
and make them ignore lines that have the "x" or "=" flags (if CNEWS is
#defined).
Has anyone else run into these problems? Are there patches that I've
missed that deal with them? Any wisdom?
Thanks,
Tim
--
"Desperately trying..." -- Edie Dept. of Computing and Information Sciences
BITNET: tar@KSUVAX1 Kansas State University, Manhattan KS 66506
Internet: tar@ksuvax1.cis.ksu.edu Voice: (913) 532-6350
UUCP: ...!{rutgers,texbell}!ksuvax1!tar Fax: (913) 532-7114tale@cs.rpi.edu (David C Lawrence) (12/28/89)
<1989Dec23.035953.21905@deimos.cis.ksu.edu> tar@sirius.cis.ksu.edu (Tim Ramsey) > Second, Cnews allows a "x" or "=news.group" in the active file. I attempted > to use the "x" flag to block some unwanted groups (like alt.sex.bestiality). > When I started up rn, it asked me if I wanted to add the new group > "alt.sex.bestiality" to my .newsrc. This is not what I had intended. Nor I, and I really disliked it because users would be wondering how come rn let them know about these groups but they couldn't post to them and no articles ever appeared. So I worked up a patch for rn last week and sent it to Stan. It is appended; it is unofficial but hopefully it or something much like it will be appearing in the next set of patches. It basically attacks the problem at two places; one is in adding groups. This is so it won't ask to add groups such as you've indicated. The other thing it does is anytime it comes across an x or = group and attempts to summarize it (ie, at the newsgroup selection level) then it will declare the group as bogus. This is for such times as when alt.sex.carasso.snuggles [1] gets automatically newgroup'ed but I don't get around to delgroup/addgroup x until a couple of hours later.[2] In addition, 'n' groups are recognized in the article header line as "no local posting", though no attempt is made by rn to prevent it if F/f is pressed. The other problem is that if you ask to subscribe to an x/= group rn will cheerfully go through the motions to do so ("Not in .newsrc, add?") but immediately declare it as bogus and go about asking whether to remove it again. :-) I didn't cover either of these situations yet; perhaps I will hack on it later this week. [1] FoO! Now that this in Spaf's list of alternate hierarchies it seems to be blessed into existence at many sites. Sigh. (I don't really care much though; we all make these choices. Just seems that things like that are what perpetuate the bad-mouthing of alt.) [2] Unfortunately unlike the newgroup control command, which can change the moderated flag of a group, addgroup as distributed will not twiddle the flag of a group. Something else to hack on later, I suppose. Dave The patch, unofficial [and I clearly faked revision control headers]: *** ngdata.c.dist Mon Dec 18 01:44:23 1989 --- ngdata.c Wed Dec 20 02:20:19 1989 *************** *** 1,6 **** ! /* $Header: ngdata.c,v 4.3.2.6 89/12/08 22:42:04 sob Exp $ * * $Log: ngdata.c,v $ * Revision 4.3.2.6 89/12/08 22:42:04 sob * Corrected typo in an #ifdef statement pointed out by * jik@pit-manager.mit.edu --- 1,9 ---- ! /* $Header: ngdata.c,v 4.3.2.7 89/12/20 00:45:00 tale Exp $ * * $Log: ngdata.c,v $ + * Revision 4.3.2.7 89/12/20 00:45:00 tale + * Added support for C News active file flags. + * * Revision 4.3.2.6 89/12/08 22:42:04 sob * Corrected typo in an #ifdef statement pointed out by * jik@pit-manager.mit.edu *************** *** 150,158 **** if (!in_ng) { for (s++; isdigit(*s); s++) ; while (isspace(*s)) s++; ! moderated = (!*s || *s == 'y' ! ? nullstr ! : getval("MODSTRING"," (moderated)") ); } } #endif --- 153,170 ---- if (!in_ng) { for (s++; isdigit(*s); s++) ; while (isspace(*s)) s++; ! switch (*s) { ! case 'n': moderated = getval("NOPOSTRING"," (no posting)"); break; ! case 'm': moderated = getval("MODSTRING", " (moderated)"); break; ! /* This shouldn't even occur. What are we doing in a non-existent ! group? Disallow it. */ ! case 'x': return TR_BOGUS; ! /* what should be done about refiled groups? rn shouldn't even ! be in them (ie, if sci.aquaria is refiled to rec.aquaria, then ! get the news there) */ ! case '=': return TR_BOGUS; ! default: moderated = nullstr; ! } } } #endif *** addng.c.dist Mon Dec 18 01:44:20 1989 --- addng.c Wed Dec 20 02:21:32 1989 *************** *** 1,6 **** ! /* $Header: addng.c,v 4.3.2.3 89/11/08 02:33:28 sob Locked $ * * $Log: addng.c,v $ * Revision 4.3.2.3 89/11/08 02:33:28 sob * Added include for server.h * --- 1,9 ---- ! /* $Header: addng.c,v 4.3.2.4 89/12/20 00:30:00 tale Locked $ * * $Log: addng.c,v $ + * Revision 4.3.2.4 89/12/20 00:30:00 tale + * Added support for C News active file flags. + * * Revision 4.3.2.3 89/11/08 02:33:28 sob * Added include for server.h * *************** *** 51,57 **** bool checkinlist; { char *tmpname; ! register char *s; long birthof(); tmpname = savestr(filexp("/tmp/rnew.%$")); --- 54,60 ---- bool checkinlist; { char *tmpname; ! register char *s, *status; long birthof(); tmpname = savestr(filexp("/tmp/rnew.%$")); *************** *** 62,69 **** } while (fgets(buf,LBUFLEN,actfp) != Nullch) { if (s = index(buf,' ')) { *s++ = '\0'; ! if (strnEQ(buf,"to.",3)) continue; if (find_ng(buf) == nextrcline && (checkinlist ? --- 65,76 ---- } while (fgets(buf,LBUFLEN,actfp) != Nullch) { if (s = index(buf,' ')) { + status=s; + while (isdigit(*status) || isspace(*status)) status++; *s++ = '\0'; ! if (strnEQ(buf,"to.",3) || *status == 'x' || *status == '=') ! /* since = groups are refiling to another group, just ! ignore their existence */ continue; if (find_ng(buf) == nextrcline && (checkinlist ? *** rn.1.dist Mon Dec 18 01:43:56 1989 --- rn.1 Wed Dec 20 02:16:23 1989 *************** *** 1,6 **** ! ''' $Header: rn.1,v 4.3.1.7 89/11/28 00:28:10 sob Locked $ ''' ''' $Log: rn.1,v $ ''' Revision 4.3.1.7 89/11/28 00:28:10 sob ''' Changed some usages of "say" and "saying" to "type" and "typing" ''' --- 1,9 ---- ! ''' $Header: rn.1,v 4.3.1.8 89/12/20 01:58:10 tale Locked $ ''' ''' $Log: rn.1,v $ + ''' Revision 4.3.1.8 89/12/20 01:58:10 tale + ''' Added documentation for MODSTRING and new NOPOSTRING + ''' ''' Revision 4.3.1.7 89/11/28 00:28:10 sob ''' Changed some usages of "say" and "saying" to "type" and "typing" ''' *************** *** 1411,1416 **** --- 1414,1424 ---- derived either directly from the Posted: line, or not-so-directly from the Date: line. Header munging at its finest. + .Ip MODSTRING 8 + The string to insert in the group summary line, which heads each article, + for a moderated group. See also NOPOSTRING. + .Sp + Default: " (moderated)" .Ip NAME 8 Your full name. May be interpolated using \*(L"%N\*(R". *************** *** 1453,1458 **** --- 1461,1471 ---- See also NEWSHEADER. .Sp Default: Pnews \-h %h + .Ip NOPOSTRING 8 + The string to insert in the group summary line, which heads each article, + for a group to which local posting is not allowed. See also MODSTRING. + .Sp + Default: " (no posting)" .Ip "NORMSAVER (~)" 8 The shell command to save an article in the normal (non-mailbox) format. .Sp --end-of-patch-- -- (setq mail '("tale@cs.rpi.edu" "tale@ai.mit.edu" "tale@rpitsmts.bitnet"))