[net.followup] small gripe

coltoff (09/01/82)

It would be impossible to put the article in the current directory.
Suppose you were snopping around in /usr/src/cmd and then did a
readnews. To save things in /usr/src/cmd would 1) clutter a system
area with user files 2) require that all people be able to write
to /usr/src/cmd ( as well as anything else).

A user is more likely to keep his own directory area clean. If he has
files scattered from from 


pardon my spasms

/usr to /usr/spool/mail to /ucb/bin he is not likely to remember where
they are or delete them when he is done. 

I think it should be kept the way it is.

coltoff (09/02/82)

The real annoyance here is that the code in readr.c ( probably in
/usr/src/cmd/news ) only allows you to save files in your home
directory. I for one would like to establish a directory called
news and store them there. My home directory is for .*rc files
some small, short ramblings of my sick mind and a whole slew of
directories. In any case I save a file and then move it where I 
want it.

Since a fopen is used to save the article it is no trouble to
pass a directory in as an arguement but the code checks for this.

Does anyone know why you are restricted to the home directory
and can't put an article in another directory that you own?

djb (09/02/82)

The environment variable NEWSBOX can be set to indicate the place where
you'd like news articles saved.  If NEWSBOX isn't set, the default is
your current directory.  Further, you can use the 's' (save) command and
NEWSBOX to do the following:

	Command					Result
	-------			----------------------------------------
	s			saves the article in $NEWSBOX/Article
	s file			saves the article in $NEWSBOX/file
	s dir/file		saves the article in ./dir/file
	s /dir/dir2/file	saves the article in /dir/dir2/file

This is the behavior you're used to, but with NEWSBOX implicitly set
to $HOME by default.

						David Bryant
						 cbosg!djb

thomas (09/02/82)

Is this a new bug/feature?  I've never had any difficulty putting files
anywhere else (although I always put them on a subdirectory of my
home directory).  What version of news are you guys running?  And
shouldn't this discussion be in net.news or something?
=Spencer

glm (09/03/82)

In reply to the questions about why news is always saved in the home directory:

I am on a system running 2.9(I believe) news, and don't understand the problem.
I have a subdirectory under my login(home) directory called news.  I use the
s option of readnews to save articles there.  I even have subdirectories under
news that I use to save articles in certain news groups.

To do this I have set the variable 'NEWSBOX=/..../glm/news' in my .profile.

To save an article in that directory I respond 's filename' and the file is
created as '/..../glm/news/filename'.  To save in a subdirectory (that I have
already created) I respond 's group/filename' and the file is created as
 '/..../glm/news/group/filename'.  To save a file in another directory in
 the system I respond 's /fullpath/filename' and the file is created as
 '/fullpath/filename'.

Do I not understand the full extent of the problem?  Does the use of a
directory in the variable NEWSBOX solve the problem?

				Gary Mann (we53!glm)