gih900@UUNET.UU.NET (Geoff Huston) (10/26/89)
To prove that I DO keep bug reports and I DO (eventually) get around to doing
something about them I found this posting of Bob Sloanes from the 7th July:
>Subject: Posting control messages in NEWS
>Well, there seem to be a few problems with POST/CONTROL. I seem to remember
>Geoff saying that the command was POST/CONTROL=..., but this doesn't seem to
>work, even though it sounds like a good way to do it. Second, the message
>generated doesn't seem to have an Approved: line in it. RFC1036 requires this
>for newgroup messages, but I couldn't find any way to generate one with NEWS.
>I tried POST/CONTROL/HEADER, but was never prompted for an Approved: header
>line.
Bob was right (of course!)
I have fixed POST to allow POST/CONTROL="text" and POST/CONTROL (in the second
case you will get prompted for the control text). In both cases you will also
be prompted if you want to include an Approved: header. The default answer is
yes. I also found out what all versions do at this point: the SUBJECT line is
used as the control line! (which is neither obvious nor reasonable).
I am not exactly sure if making control postings easier is a good thing or not
- after seeing the local news admins fight a very messy and public
Australia-wide rmgroup/newgroup control posting war that lasted for some weeks
back in June, I must admit to feeling that the fewer people who can fire off
control messages into the net at large the better!!
Geoff (yes I am still plugging away at NEWS - V5.9B patches due out
mid-November)