HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bruce@ais.com (Bruce C. Wright)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Getting a directory listing to a file?
Date: 17 Aug 92 13:03:43 GMT
Organization: Applied Information Systems, Chapel Hill, NC

Does anyone know of a good way to get a directory of the articles
in a newsgroup written to a file (sort of like the DCL command
DIRECTORY/OUTPUT=file)?  The DIRECTORY command in ANU-NEWS does
not seem to accept the /OUTPUT qualifier (it doesn't give an
error message but it doesn't do anything useful with it), and
there are no other commands or qualifiers that seem to work (even
using $ NEWS/NOSCREEN and then using DIR within that mode doesn't
work because in noscreen mode it wants a carriage return after
each "page" of news article listings -- even if it's running from
a command file!).

Obviously I can capture the characters from a session using PHOTO
or some similar utility, but this will include all the cursor escape
sequences, which would be a nuisance to edit out since I want a
standard listing file so I can use it for some list maintenance.
Or I could write a program to read the news.items file, but this is
a bit of a bother if there's already a nice way to do this.

Any ideas?  This is with News 6.0-1 (or so it claims, it's the one
from the DECUS CD-ROM, and in some places the documentation claims
it's 6.0-2 but the program itself gives 6.0-1.  I know that 6.0-3
exists but don't know a good way to get hold of it from where we are -
we don't have ready access to FTP).  If this feature works in 6.0-3
(since it doesn't give an error I assume that this was intended to
be made to work at some point), and anyone knows a good way to get
hold of that version in binary format (not sources), that would also
be worth knowing about.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide -

Bruce C. Wright
From: ewilts@galaxy.gov.bc.ca (Ed Wilts)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Getting a directory listing to a file?
Date: 18 Aug 92 02:51:16 GMT
Reply-To: EWILTS@GALAXY.GOV.BC.CA
Organization: BC Systems Corporation

In article <1992Aug17.130343.5731@ais.com>, bruce@ais.com (Bruce C. Wright) writes:
> Does anyone know of a good way to get a directory of the articles
> in a newsgroup written to a file (sort of like the DCL command
> DIRECTORY/OUTPUT=file)?  The DIRECTORY command in ANU-NEWS does
> not seem to accept the /OUTPUT qualifier (it doesn't give an
> error message but it doesn't do anything useful with it), and
> there are no other commands or qualifiers that seem to work (even
> using $ NEWS/NOSCREEN and then using DIR within that mode doesn't
> work because in noscreen mode it wants a carriage return after
> each "page" of news article listings -- even if it's running from
> a command file!).

Try EXTRACT/DIRECTORY filename.  I just played with it briefly to see that it
does work, although it doesn't seem to extract the posters' addresses.

What I really like in 6.1 is extract/dir=newsgrouptitles to get a list of all
newsgroups and titles.  I generated this list every week and automatically post
it to a local newsgroup for people to search (hopefully not print since it's
over 1000 lines long).

-- 

Ed Wilts, BC Systems Corp., 4000 Seymour Place, Victoria, B.C., Canada, V8X 4S8
EWilts@Galaxy.Gov.BC.CA   |   Ed.Wilts@BCSystems.Gov.BC.CA   |   (604) 389-3430
From: ake@dayton.saic.com (Earle Ake)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Status of fastload
Date: 17 Aug 92 20:20:49 EDT
Organization: Science Applications Intl. Corp., Dayton, Ohio

In article <1992Aug17.123255.154@indyvax.iupui.edu>, imhw400@indyvax.iupui.edu writes:


> I note that NEWSREMCLIENT.C emits NEWNEWS commands.  Perhaps changes in this
> area would gain some speed.  I'm not at all familiar with the code, so go ahead
> and tell me what I've failed to consider.  :-)

	You should try to modify it but add an optional qualifier that enables
the new code so sites that it doesn't work with would not be forced to use it.

	Try some timing tests and also post the changes so others could
implement and test as well.


Earle
_____________________________________________________________________________
             ____ ____    ___
Earle Ake   /___ /___/ / /     Science Applications International Corporation
           ____//   / / /__                 Dayton, Ohio
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet: ake@dayton.saic.com  uucp: dayvb!ake  NSI-DECnet (SPAN): 28284::ake
From: leichter@zodiac.rutgers.edu
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Status of fastload
Date: 14 Aug 92 02:47:24 GMT
Organization: Rutgers University Computing Services

Has fastload been hacked at in versions 6.1alpha or beta?  Does it work?

This site uses an NNTP client connecting to a server carrying, at last
count, some 3800 groups.  Limiting the visible groups is not considered
an option.

Before the last begin jump in groups, startup was very slow but NEWS was
usable.  Now, startup is either impossibly slow (over half an hour and
millions of page faults with the default 2000-page workings set size) or
slow but causes massive impact on the system (with a 5000-page working set).
As a result, NEWS is about to be retired here.  Only a working fastload can
save it.

Whnever I've tried fastload in V6.0, it seems to work the first time, but
after a fastload version of NEWSRC has been written, subsequent NEWS sessions
never see any newsgroups.  (Question for those of you who have reported that
fastload works for you with V6.0:  Are you using an NNTP client?)

							-- Jerry
From: john@cutler.com (John E. Babbitt Jr.)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Help setting up regional distributions
Date: 17 Aug 92 16:02:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: cutler.1992Aug17.090205.283
Organization: Cutler & Company, Inc., Medford OR (503) 770-9000

In article <1992Aug16.094353.4439@dmc.com>, munroe@dmc.com (Dick Munroe) writes:
> I'm puzzled by the effect regional distributions have.  If I specify a
[...]
> 
> The examples in NEWS.SYS show things of the form:
> 
> foo: all,world, ....
> 
> and I see the behavior described above if I do the same.  I've tried:
> 
> foo: all,!all.*,world,!world.*, ...
> 
> with no joy.  I checked TFD, but the text versions are dumb on the issue.
> 
> I MUST be doing something wrong, but what?

Try this format:

	system-name:subscriptions:flags:queue-file:distributions

E.g.

    ME:comp.os.vms,control,junk,vmsnet:::local,na,or,pnw,usa,world

Avoid "all" in the distribution field.  Otherwise, it'll give you or send
them "all" distributions.

Regards,

John E. Babbitt, Jr.        {UUCP: ...hplabs!hp-pcd!orstcs!cutler!john}
Senior Programmer/Analyst   {Internet: john@cutler.com}
Cutler & Company, Inc.      {Phone: 503/770-9000 (voice) 503/770-9014 (tdd)}
Medford, Oregon  97504      {Disclaimer: What I say is my personal opinion}
From: daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Setting up mailing list newsgroup
Date: 12 Aug 92 09:01:50 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

Hi,

I would like to be able to set up a newsgroup as a mailing list group.

SET NEWSG <group>/MAILLIST=<mailing list address> seems to work in that a
message posted to the group is sent to the mailing list; however, the message
does not appear in the newsgroup. Is this behaviour expected? If so, is there a
way of forcing the message to appear in the newsgroup as well as being sent to
the mailing list?

Thanks for any help,

Dave

(ps we're running anu-news 6.0-3 and vms 5.5-1)

David Hastings                      | "Imposition of order=escalation of chaos"
VAX Systems Programmer              |                     
Oxford University Computing Services| "Just when you think you've won the 
daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk              |        rat race, along come faster rats"
From: imhw400@indyvax.iupui.edu
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Status of fastload
Date: 17 Aug 92 12:32:55 -0500

In article <1992Aug16.215734.1@acad3.alaska.edu>, fsars@acad3.alaska.edu (Allen R Sparks) writes:
[...]
> For example, in VNEWS, when one invokes a session, it checks to see if
> you have a XX.NEWSRC file, and if you do, goes through and checks if
> there are new groups to be added.  It seems to do this much faster
> than NEWS does.

I think that a lot of speed could be gained by changing the way that NEWS
queries the server.  (I've been meaning to bring this up for some time, but
wanted to wait until I'd done all the research.  I decided not to wait.)

Some time ago (before installing ANU NEWS) I built a gadget to attach to an
NNTP server and suck out all of the articles added to a given group since a
given time.  (I wanted usenet maps for our MTA, nothing more.)  Originally I
used the NEWNEWS command, but found that the Unix servers that I tested with
were unconscionably slow in responding.  I changed the code to use STAT and
NEXT to step through all articles, comparing each article id to a database of
articles already fetched, and got much faster responses.  I guessed that the
servers were laboriously opening each article and parsing its headers to
produce the response to NEWNEWS, but that STAT somehow avoided this overhead. 

There certainly is *something* going on that takes far longer than it should. 
We run a caching client setup here, bumming articles off an Ultrix host at our
sister campus in Bloomington.  I've watched a SKIM operation and seen that,
although our SKIMs take a couple of hours, NEWS is idle for most of the time;
the remote server is doing an awful lot of work to produce the minimal
information that we want.

I note that NEWSREMCLIENT.C emits NEWNEWS commands.  Perhaps changes in this
area would gain some speed.  I'm not at all familiar with the code, so go ahead
and tell me what I've failed to consider.  :-)
-- 
Mark H. Wood, Lead Analyst/Programmer    +1 317 274 0749   [@disclaimer@]
Internet:  IMHW400@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU     BITNET:  IMHW400@INDYVAX
Celebrate freedom:  read a banned newsgroup.
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
From: rankin@eql.caltech.edu (Pat Rankin)
Subject: Re: Following threads through references:
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 04:23:00 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.084315.42307@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bob Sloane) writes...
>In <1992Aug13.061633.4425@dmc.com>, munroe@dmc.com (Dick Munroe) writes:
>> Does ANU NEWS support following a thread by reference?
> 
>I suppose you mean something different than READ/FOLLOWUP?

     Obviously. ;-)  /Followup works by matching the subject text, not
reference message IDs.  Full threads allow you to read a followup even
when the poster changes the subject title.  Given the complexity involved,
I wouldn't hold my breath for this feature...

		Pat Rankin, rankin@eql.caltech.edu
From: connelly@iscsvax.uni.edu (Ken Connelly)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: SYSLCK error when running NEWS
Date: 17 Aug 92 10:52:26 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1992Aug14.085151.8268@vax.oxford.ac.uk>, daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
> Has anybody seen this before (when attempting to run NEWS.EXE):
> 
> 	NEWS is curently locked - forced image exit (SYSLCK)
> 
> 
> The previous time NEWS is called is in a detached process which does the daily
> SKIM. The SKIM finishes OK. This detached process then kicks off another
> detached process to add new news, but the first time that this tries to run
> NEWS.EXE it produces the above message.
> 
> NEWS.EXE (6.0-3) is installed with SYSPRV and SYSLCK. VMS version is 5.5-1.
> 
> Any ideas?

This message is displayed when attempting to run NEWS while the
SYSTEM-table, EXECUTIVE-mode logical NEWS_STOP is defined.  If it only
happens the first time, I suspect a timing problem in which the SKIM process
hasn't DEASSIGNed the logical name before the "adding" process kicks in.
-- 
===========================================================================
Ken Connelly, Systems/Operations Manager         Internet: connelly@uni.edu
Information Systems and Computing Services
University of Northern Iowa                       USWestNet: (319) 273-2357
Cedar Falls, IA  50614-0121                             FAX: (319) 273-3509
As time goes on, it becomes more and more apparent that elected officials 
should be required to pass a competency test.  Then we wouldn't have any, 
and all would be right with the world!
===========================================================================
Xref: sparky news.software.anu-news:1291 vmsnet.networks.tcp-ip.multinet:2010
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news,vmsnet.networks.tcp-ip.multinet
Subject: Problem with feeding other sites
From: cctr127@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz (Jason Haar)
Date: 21 Aug 92 17:07:58 +1200
Reply-To: j.haar@csc.canterbury.ac.nz
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
X-Gateway-Source-Info: INTERNET
X-Return-path: <info-multinet-relay@TGV.COM>
X-RFC822-From: "cctr127@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz"@csc.canterbury.ac.nz
X-Envelope-to: info-multinet@tgv.com
X-VMS-To: in%"info-multinet@tgv.com"
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

Hi,

A few weeks ago I posted a query about why our NEWS software seemed to
have broken since we upgraded to VMS 5.5. Well, the answers I got didn't
help, so I'm trying again :-(

First off, I was wrong, we aren't running 5.5 - it's actually A5.5, but I
don't think that makes a difference. It looks like we are dropping about
10% of all newsitems that we are supposed to be sending on to our
downstream sites. To be more specific, NEWS reaching us gets onto our
system alright, but the record of it doesn't seem to reach the COLLECT.IDS
files - and so isn't available for NNTP_XMIT to send on to downstream sites.

I was running the nntp caching hooks as well - but I removed them for two
weeks - it made no difference :-(

Has anyone come across anything similar? Our downstream sites are now
dropping us and going elsewhere for their feeds - so things are pretty
serious. Any ideas where to start? Debugging isn't an option as I assume
the problem lies in NNTP_TCPWINMULTINET (accepting the items, but failing
to write to COLLECT.IDS on some messages). I've looked at some of the
articles that haven't got through, and they're no different from ones that
do - in fact if I manually offer them to other sites - they go. The point
is, they aren't offered in the first place :-(

Over all, pretty much a big :-(


Help!

--

Cheers

Jason Haar, Network Consultant
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
From: kenc@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
Subject: Kludge to get /fastload to work with 6.1alpha4
Organization: University of North Texas
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 16:10:04 GMT

Would someone care to comment on this little kludge for the /fastload option:

Seems that in the newsutility.c file, in the init_screen() function, a variable 
num_grps is set to be ga[0]->grp_count.  (Line 1913 in 6.1alpha4, 1955 or so in
6.1b)  In other words, it seems to be set to the number of groups loaded when 
anu is started.  Finally, the grp_vd virtual display is created using an SMG$ 
call with num_grps+40 number of rows.  This is fine, as long as no dir/all is 
performed.

My kludge was to manually set the variable num_grps to an arbitrarily large
number...in this case 3000, and it's working just fine now. This should last
for 6 months or so, with all the alt.* groups being added...;)

However, (since I'm not SMG$ knowlegeable at all), wouldn't it be better to
reinitialize the virtual display or possibly add on to it, using another
init_screen call after the dir/all has completed?  As it is, it needs to be
recompiled every time.

Note, this does waste a little more memory, but NOT that much, and it makes the
/fastload option work pretty well.  (As long as I can remember to type
newsgroups, instead of dir/all....*grrr*)

-- 
   __   Ken Corey  aka kenc@vaxb.acs.unt.edu  aka kenc@sol.acs.unt.edu
  /  \   Don't worry about the world ending today...it's already tomorrow
  \__/    in Australia.           -Charles Schultz
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
From: jrroma@beaker.monsanto.com (John Roman)
Subject: Re: Status of fastload
Organization: Monsanto Company
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 20:40:07 GMT

leichter@zodiac.rutgers.edu writes:
: Has fastload been hacked at in versions 6.1alpha or beta?  Does it work?
: 
: This site uses an NNTP client connecting to a server carrying, at last
: count, some 3800 groups.  Limiting the visible groups is not considered
: an option.
: 
: Before the last begin jump in groups, startup was very slow but NEWS was
: usable.  Now, startup is either impossibly slow (over half an hour and
: millions of page faults with the default 2000-page workings set size) or
: slow but causes massive impact on the system (with a 5000-page working set).
: As a result, NEWS is about to be retired here.  Only a working fastload can
: save it.
: 
: Whnever I've tried fastload in V6.0, it seems to work the first time, but
: after a fastload version of NEWSRC has been written, subsequent NEWS sessions
: never see any newsgroups.  (Question for those of you who have reported that
: fastload works for you with V6.0:  Are you using an NNTP client?)
: 
: 							-- Jerry

We are also interested in fastload, but for somewhat different reasons.
We have only about 500 groups, but are being pressured to move news from
local mode to client mode (with the server being a DECstation running
Ultrix).  Tests with a client anu-news reader with stream decnet have
been encouraging, but there are a few problems.  In particular, when
you set your profile to fastload, you can't seem to do a dir/all to
see any of the non-registered groups.  Otherwise, the performance
is reasonably acceptable.

jrr
--
John Roman                                          Monsanto Company
jrroma@beaker.monsanto.com                          Chesterfield, MO  63198
(314) 537-7044
From: rankin@eql10.caltech.edu (Pat Rankin)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Getting a directory listing to a file?
Date: 18 Aug 92 05:14:39 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena

In article <1992Aug17.130343.5731@ais.com>, bruce@ais.com (Bruce C. Wright) writes:
> Does anyone know of a good way to get a directory of the articles
> in a newsgroup written to a file (sort of like the DCL command
> DIRECTORY/OUTPUT=file)?

NEWS> EXTRACT/DIRECTORY=NEWSITEMS filename
should do the trick.  DIR/OUTPUT=filename does seem more intuitive...

		Pat Rankin, rankin@eql.caltech.edu
From: sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bob Sloane)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Setting up mailing list newsgroup
Date: 13 Aug 92 08:40:12 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In <1992Aug12.100150.8219@vax.oxford.ac.uk>, daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
> SET NEWSG <group>/MAILLIST=<mailing list address> seems to work in that a
> message posted to the group is sent to the mailing list; however, the message
> does not appear in the newsgroup. Is this behaviour expected?

Yes.  You should have an account set up somewhere that is subscribed
to the newsgroup and a batch job that collects the mail from the list
and adds it to the NEWS database.  The articles emailed to the list
will get added locally when they come back from the list.

> If so, is there a way of forcing the message to appear in the
> newsgroup as well as being sent to the mailing list?

Not without writing software.  There is no easy way to make sure that
every article won't get added twice, once when it is posted and once
when it comes back from the list.  I have some software that will take
a NEWS batch file and send it to a mailing list as if it came from the
original poster, but it depends on your having PMDF. There is also a
version for MX if you have that.  These program will do what you want,
providing the mailing list can be set up to preserve the Message-Id
header that you send it.
-- 
USmail: Bob Sloane, University of Kansas Computer Center, Lawrence, KS, 66045
E-mail: sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu, sloane@ukanvax.bitnet, AT&T: (913)864-0444
From: hays@ponder.ponca.dupont.com
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Can't add new newsgroup
Date: 20 Aug 92 18:06:36 GMT
Reply-To: hays@ponder.ponca.dupont.com
Organization: Conoco Inc., Ponca City, OK

I am a new users to ANU-News.  We just got it installed and are trying
to set it up for a feed.  We have got the feed setup but it appears to
have filled up the indexed file with Newsgroups.  When I tried to add a
new newsgroup now, it gives me a %RMS-F-DUP, duplicate key detected (DUP not set) error message.  What do I need to do to fix it?  Thanks.

Randy Hays
Conoco Inc.
Ponca City, OK
Internet: hays@pogun.dnet.dupont.com
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
From: smd@sl0091.srl.ford.com (Steve Dahmen)
Subject: GRIPE about XRN 6.17 (Motif)
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 18:40:44 -0400
X-Received: by usenet.pa.dec.com; id AA23124; Wed, 12 Aug 92 15:39:58 -0700
X-Received: by inet-gw-1.pa.dec.com; id AA01258; Wed, 12 Aug 92 15:39:56 -0700
X-Received: by sl0091.srl.ford.com (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03)          id AA11561; Wed, 12 Aug 1992 18:40:44 -0400
X-To: news.software.readers.usenet

X VERSION, RELEASE, and PATCH LEVEL MACHINE:
    [i.e., X Version 11, Release 4, Patch Level 18]

CLIENT MACHINE and OPERATING SYSTEM:
    RS6K AIX 3.2.2

SYNOPSIS:
    No easy way to get to already read articles

DESCRIPTION:
    It would be really nifty if one could ask for all the read articles in
    a subject.  Once you've read them, they're GONE. Or so it seems.

REPEAT BY:
    just running xrn and try and read articles read in a previous xrn session.

SAMPLE FIX:
    ????

-- 
Steve Dahmen ** Graphics Application Programmer
Ford Motor Company
smd@sl0091.srl.ford.com
313-248-2418 (work)
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
From: mjo@ef2007.efhd.ford.com (Mike O'Connor)
Subject: Re: reading news from multiple NNTP servers.
X-Disclaimer: Not an official spokesperson for Ford OPEO
Reply-To: Mike O'Connor <mjo@fmsrl7.srl.ford.com>
Organization: International Affairs, Overseas Engineering, "Fordz"
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:21:20 GMT

In article <1992Aug12.212311.29793@pony.Ingres.COM> rog@Ingres.COM
(Roger Taranto) writes:

:We modified rrn to handle reading from multiple news servers.  We then
:use a wrapper around rrn that sets the NNTPSERVER variable.  The server
:name is appended to the news files that need to be different, e.g.,
:.newsrcfoo, .newsrcbar, etc.
:
:We use this because we have company news on one machine and USENET news
:on another.

Another rn approach would be to specify different DOTDIR environment
variables depending on which NNTP server you may be using.  It doesn't
exactly lend itself to terribly smooth integration, but it works.

-- 
 Michael J. O'Connor           |  Internet:  mjo@fmsrl7.srl.ford.com
 Ford Motor Company, OPEO      |  UUCP:      ...!{backbone}!fmsrl7!mjo
 20000 Rotunda, Bldg. 1-3001   |  Phone:     +1 (313) 248-1260
 Dearborn, MI  48121           |  Fax:       +1 (313) 323-6277
From: ppoh@amethyst.tcs.tufts.edu (Paul B. Poh)
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: Re: reading news from multiple NNTP servers.
Date: 13 Aug 92 13:00:50 GMT
	<1992Aug12.152021.16370@news.iastate.edu>
Organization: Tufts University - Medford, MA


In article <1992Aug12.152021.16370@news.iastate.edu> spam@iastate.edu (mike begley) writes:

   >Is there ans newsreading software that will allow me to read news from
   >multiple NNTP servers?  For example, I read some news on from our local
   >server, and read some groups on a remote server.  I think it would be
   >to have another field in the .newsrc file that specifies what server the
   >groups are to be read from.  this would

If you use emacs, you can use gnus to read news from multiple servers.
It will create multiple newsrc files for each NNTP server that you wish to
access. 

Check out gnu.emacs.gnus. The latest Gnus is available at
tut.cis.ohio-state.edu [128.146.8.60].
--
Paul Poh                        Unix Systems Programmer
ppoh@amethyst.tcs.tufts.edu     Computer Services, Tufts University