From: bobl@bobsbox.rent.com (Bob Lindabury - SysAdmin)
Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.uucp
Subject: Re: Cnews?  Help!
Date: 27 Sep 92 13:52:08 GMT
Organization: Raven Enterprises -- Piscataway, NJ USA
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16e (7/4/92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith

In article <1992Sep27.012941.1538@ckctpa.UUCP> crash@ckctpa.UUCP (Frank "Crash" Edwards) writes:
> bobl@bobsbox.rent.com (Bob Lindabury - SysAdmin) writes:
> >Well, I've setup CNews on my system and I seem to be in hell!
>
> I take full credit (and full blame) for things that don't work in my
> port of CNews for AmigaDOS.  Before I start answering some of the
> questions that were posted, I'd like to point out that further
> changes/enhancements have pretty much come to a standstill since I've
> gotten Amiga Unix 2.1 up and running.  I just very rarely use AmigaDOS
> anymore (I'm a Unix freak -- what can I say? :-)

First I'd like to say I appreciate the fast feedback Frank.  I never
expected you to reply as fast as you did.  Says something about your
very good support even though you don't have time or the inclination to
continue with the CNews port.  Heck, I wouldn't be interested in it
either if I had SVR4! <grin>  However, I can't justify the cost of that
at this time and I really need to use the machine for graphics purposes
under AmigaDOS as well.  So...

> Yes.  I presume you got the Fred Fish distribution which had incorrect
> filenames in the UnBatch.#? script(s).  Unshar the one below and see
> if it is the same as what you're using -- it's the latest one I've
> got.  (I've heard of people finding bugs in the scripts, telling me
> that they've fixed them, and then I never receive a copy.  How am I
> supposed to distribute fixed versions [for bugs I haven't seen] when I
> don't get a copy.  I've stopped trying.)

I got CNews from UUNET.  Ah..did I miss the archive?  I didn't see one
below.  Maybe these messages will get those people to speak up because I
sure would like to get CNews up and running here.  I thought there were
*lots* of people running it.  Or is that AmigaUUCP+?  Anyway I can get
it, I'll take it! <grin>  If I can get things running, I will probably
document everything and create a step-by-step setup procedure for CNews
and distribute that because it seems the hardest part of this is
figuring out what to do to what.  There is no single file giving those
directions.  The one included assumes some pretty major knowledge of
both CNews conventions AND your transport mechanizm.  Luckily I have a
reasonable understanding of these.  However, even with the knowledge I
have, it's difficult if the scripts are incomplete.  Assuming the
transport is AmigaUUCP and completing the scripts based on that premise
would go a long way towards increasing the userbase of the CNews port.

> I don't know what GRn expects to see in the .next file, so I can't
> tell you what to fix.  Perhaps the author of GRn would consider using
> the files provided with the stock (Unix) CNews as an option?  [The
> "active" file keeps track of new articles; and "history" contains
> information on what has been expired and what hasn't.]

Hopefully Mike will be reading this and will be able to shed some light
on the subject.  Maybe allowing GRn to optionally read the active and
history files would be advantagous for GRn.

> Otherwise, find out what the .next files should have and execute
> another script after you do UNBATCHing which fixes those files.

I guess this is an option.  I thought that GRn, however, didn't make use
of the .next files but when I tried to use it with some CNews posted
articles, it didn't recognize them.  Once I manually edited a .next
file to reflect the added CNews articles, it read them just fine.  (The
.next files just hold a number that is the next message to be posted to
the group)

> >Also, anything posted locally doesn't get posted.  It gets queued into
> >NewsArts:incoming as an uncompressed article and unbatch doesn't
> >recognize it.  How can I get articles posted to queue out?
>
> You point out after this that the batching scripts fail.  The blame
> here is 100% mine as I did not fully test these.  I had two (count'em
> -- TWO) beta testers, one who supplied the ARexx scripts you mention.
> Unfortunately the other individual didn't have the batching problem --
> he was a leaf site.  (Perhaps this will encourage people to become
> beta testers -- the software won't improve without someone to run it
> and point out problems.)

Ok..maybe I'm missign something here.  Normally (as I understand it)
when I post something with GRn, GRn calls postnews which then calls
rnews which posts the article locally and queues it for batching
which then calls batchnews (if set to autobatch) to batch it for the
outgoing sites.  Batchnews then uses uux to queue it in the spool
directory.

When I run CNews GRn calls postnews which then calls rnews (for CNews)
which then does what?  Doesn't it post the article locally based on the
sys file?  If not, does it call relaynews to do this?  Unbatch doesn't
recognize it because it's not compressed and it's not a batch.  It's
just an article.  Here is my incoming directory listing:

newsarts:in.coming (dir):
------rwed--------     2      643 25-Sep-92 14:16 464969760
------rwed--------     2      626 25-Sep-92 14:32 464970720
------rwed--------     7     3462 25-Sep-92 18:03 464983380
------rwed--------     4     1559 25-Sep-92 18:04 464983440
------rwed--------     3     1455 25-Sep-92 23:24 465002640
------rwed--------     3     1367 26-Sep-92 06:12 465027120
------rwed--------     4     1696 26-Sep-92 07:40 465032340
------rwed--------     4     1563 26-Sep-92 06:12 nspoolA.518008
------rwed--------     5     2508 26-Sep-92 06:12 nspoolB.518008

The files starting with the numbers are articles posted locally via GRn.
They are not distributed to the appropriate newsgroups and I can't
figure out how to do that.  I'm unsure as to what the nspool files are
but they seem to be news articles that have arrived via mail and run
through AmigaUUCP's postnews from the mail aliases.

> I have seen postings from people claiming they've fixed the batching
> scripts (quite a few people said my 2.04 scripts wouldn't run on their
> 1.3 systems -- sorry).  Of course, *I've* never gotten a copy of
> these, nor even any word that they're available for anon ftp.  So I'm
> afraid I can't send you replacements.

I hope someone can point me to these scripts.  I am running under ROM
2.04 and WB 2.1.

> Concerning the manually created batch_#?.z files:  yes, you must
> provide the transport interface.  CNews _is not_ a transport, it's a
> message handling package.  UUCP is a transport agent.  I would suggest
> either adding a line to DoBatch.e to queue up the transfers at the end
> of the batching or run a separate program to do it after DoBatch
> finishes.

Ok..I didn't read the echo statements.  So I guess I have to call uux to
create the appropriate spool files.  This is something that a CNews
distribution *for* AmigaUUCP should include.  If I can work it out I
will certainly make it available.

However, I don't want to reinvent the wheel here if it's already done.
<grin>  I would *love* to use Christian's ARexx scripts but I haven't
had any luck finding WShell.  Maybe someone can point me to that as
well.  Any chance those scripts could be massaged to use the AmigaShell
under 2.x?? <double grin>

> >The following batching script fails miserably.  I had to change the
> >"batcher" command line to remove the -p (prefix) option as I kept
> >getting some sort of error about prefix specified twice.  Also, if there
> >isn't any "togo" file in the system's directory, the script seems to
> >just quit when it should return back and try to process the next
> >system's togo file. Here's the Dobatch.e2 script...
>
> Hmmm; does it do that under 2.0 or 1.3?  I don't recall having a
> problem with DoBatch.e2 causing DoBatch.e to quit prematurely.  But
> again, I think I must've munged DoBatch.e and DoBatch.e2 while trying
> to create diffs using RCS.  That's the only reason I can think of why
> both scripts should be as back-dated as they were.

Well, what fails is dobatch.e2.  Since it fails, I never get back to
dobatch.e and hence, never did see those echo messages telling me to
then use my transport mechanizm to spool the batches..erg.  I added a
fail at 20 line and also changed the return code to 10 and I can get the
dobatch.e2 script to compress now.  However, it still doesn't return to
dobatch.e if it doesn't find a todo file in an out.going/[system]
directory.  I'm pretty new to AmigaDOS scripts.  What does quit 5 do.  I
assume it should return me to dobatch.e...

>
> >---------- DOBATCH.E2
> >.key SYS
> >.bra [
> >.ket ]
> >
> >cd NewsArts:Out.Going/[SYS]
> >if not exists togo
> >        quit 5
> >endif
> >
> >if exists T:Batch.[SYS]
> >        echo "Batcher already running for [SYS]"
> >        quit 5
> >endif
> >
> >date >T:Batch.[SYS]
> >delete quiet togo.last
> >rename togo togo.last   ; move `togo' in case relaynews creates more...
> >
> >echo "News batched for `[SYS]' is in NewsArts:Out.Going/[SYS]/batch_#?.Z"
> >batcher -s 100000 -f togo.last ; -S [SYS]; (system name for batchparms)
> >if val $RC eq 0
> >        list batch_#? lformat "acomp %s" to temp
> >        sort temp exec.compress
> >        execute exec.compress
> >        delete exec.compress temp quiet
> >else
> >        echo "Hmmm.  Something in `batcher' didn't work!"
> >        date >>togo.failed
> >        join togo.last to togo.failed
> >        rm togo.last
> >fi

> Hmmm.  Sounds like BATCHER is expecting relative pathnames and
> RELAYNEWS is generating absolute pathnames.  There's a flag in the SYS
> file or on the RELAYNEWS command line that says what it should do.  I
> don't recall at the moment.  Perhaps the best fix, however, would be
> to modify batcher.c so that it only adds "NewsArts:" if there's not a
> colon already on the line...

Well, I don't do C (yet) so I guess I will see if I can use either a sys
flag or relaynews flag to strip the additional NewsArts: out of the togo
files.

> Sorry for the hassles.  After I sent CNews to Fred Fish for inclusion
> in the library, I contacted C= about being a developer.  Then I
> bought an A3000 and started beta testing Amiga Unix, and I've worked
> on CNews very little since then.  But I suppose it's just as well,
> since I never hear about anyone using it (except for the 3 or 4 people
> who sent me shareware donations and to whom I apologize about neglecting
> support when I jumped into Amiga Unix).  There was little or no reason
> to continue working on it since I wasn't using it and no one else was
> either.

Hopefully that will change in the near future.  It will probably be
pretty simple to setup CNews for AmigaUUCP once some of the kinks are
worked out, the scripts are completed *FOR* AmigaUUCP specifically and a
step-by-step installation procedure is included in a distribution.

>
> Now, if you want patches to use an Archive Viper under Amix, or to
> allow a two-button mouse to pretend to be a three-button mouse, or if
> you wanna try out my Amix commands for reading an AmigaDOS hard disk
> and storing the files under Amix, then contact me.  But I don't use
> AmigaDOS much anymore.

<grin>  Anybody selling a copy of AmigaUnix 2.1 cheap? <grin>

> --
> Frank "Crash" Edwards            King Marine Electronics, Inc.
> Home: 813/786-3675               Work: 813/530-3411
>     Having trouble sleeping?  Try lying on the end of the bed.  With
>     luck you'll drop off.
>           -- Mark Twain

--
 Bob Lindabury

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Newsgroups: alt.sys.amiga.uucp,comp.sys.amiga.misc