[news.software.anu-news] Problem feeding ANU-News V5.8 from Ultrix via DECNET

gay@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM (lance gay) (09/30/89)

I have installed ANU-News V5.8 on a VAX running VMS 4.7 and am trying to
feed it from an Ultrix V3.0 system running News V2.11.  After the text of 
the first article is transferred to VMS, the connection seems to die.  It
appears that Ultrix is waiting for a response (perhaps the 235 message).
Below is the Ultrix nntpxmit debug log (SUNSET is the VMS node name):

200 sunset VMS NNTP server version 5.8 ready at Fri Sep 29 16:39:59 1989 (posting ok).
>>> IHAVE <24@venice.SEDD.TRW.COM>
335 send article to be transferred.  End with <CR-LF>.<CR-LF>
>>> .
nntpxmit: sunset xfer: Operation not supported
nntpxmit: requeue(/news/spool/news/misc/test/97)
nntpxmit: cleanup()
nntpxmit: rewrite(sunset.nntp)
nntpxmit: copying the unused portion of sunset.nntp to /tmp/nntpxmita19205
nntpxmit: writing failed article filenames to /tmp/nntpxmita19205
nntpxmit: wrote 1 article filenames to /tmp/nntpxmita19205
nntpxmit: copying /tmp/nntpxmita19205 back to sunset.nntp
nntpxmit: requeue(): reset
nntpxmit: rewrite(sunset.nntp): done
>>> QUIT
nntpxmit: sunset stats 1 offered 1 accepted 0 rejected 1 failed
nntpxmit: sunset xmit user 0.2 system 0.4 elapsed 305.5

On the VMS side, a .TMP file is created in NEWS_MANAGER containing the text
of the aritcle, but it never gets put into the system.

Any help on this matter would be appreciated.  This is the first major 
article I have ever posted on NEWS.

Lance Gay
TRW, Redondo Beach, CA
Internet: gay@venice.sedd.trw.com

gih900@UUNET.UU.NET (Geoff Huston) (10/04/89)

>I have installed ANU-News V5.8 on a VAX running VMS 4.7 and am trying to
>feed it from an Ultrix V3.0 system running News V2.11.  After the text of
>the first article is transferred to VMS, the connection seems to die.  It
>appears that Ultrix is waiting for a response (perhaps the 235 message).
>Below is the Ultrix nntpxmit debug log (SUNSET is the VMS node name):
     
On the assumption that you are connecting to the NNTP server
on the Ultrix siude via DECnet I acn offer the following comments:...
     
     
The implementation of DECnet on Ultrix is prone to sync errors -
The Ultirx DECnet NNTP connection was investigated by Leonard Pierce (as I
remember) about 12 months ago, and the trick used then was to include
IO$M_MULTIPLE on the channel READ QIO's on the VMS side.
     
Oddly enough I have not been informed of any problems with connecting to Ultrix
using TCP as the transport - it's only DECnet which gives problems.
     
Geoff Huston

peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu (Leonard J. Peirce) (10/06/89)

In article <8910030303.AA09598@uunet.uu.net> Geoff Huston <munnari!csc.anu.oz.au!gih900@UUNET.UU.NET> writes:
>>I have installed ANU-News V5.8 on a VAX running VMS 4.7 and am trying to
>>feed it from an Ultrix V3.0 system running News V2.11.  After the text of
>>the first article is transferred to VMS, the connection seems to die.  It
>>appears that Ultrix is waiting for a response (perhaps the 235 message).
> [...]
>The implementation of DECnet on Ultrix is prone to sync errors -
>The Ultrix DECnet NNTP connection was investigated by Leonard Peirce (as I
>remember) about 12 months ago, and the trick used then was to include
>IO$M_MULTIPLE on the channel READ QIO's on the VMS side.

The problem is that the DECnet NNTP implementations on VMS and ULTRIX use
different socket types.  The VMS NNTP uses DECnet sequenced packet sockets
and the ULTRIX DECnet NNTP uses stream sockets.  Using the IO$M_MULTIPLE
qualifier on the QIO's makes the VMS side use stream sockets and things work
fine.

I had the same problem with things hanging and Matt Thomas (who wrote the
NNTP DECnet support for ULTRIX) set me straight about the problems that can
occur when using different socket types.

Geoff has included the stream socket support for DECnet NNTP in ANU News 5.8A
although it isn't the default to maintain compatability.  You have to rebuild
and with DECNETSTREAM #defined for it to be turned on.

Also realize that DECnet stream I/O is only available in VMS 5.0 and beyond.
In order to use it, you'll have to upgrade. :-(
--
Leonard J. Peirce               Internet:  peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu
Western Michigan University                peirce@gw.wmich.edu
Academic Computer Center        UUCP:      ...!uunet!sharkey!wmichgw!peirce
Kalamazoo, MI  49008            Phone:     (616) 387-5469