HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Life used to be simple . . .
From: cctr127@cantsc.canterbury.ac.nz (Jason Haar)
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 23:52:22 GMT
Reply-To: j.haar@csc.canterbury.ac.nz
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

connelly@iscsvax.uni.edu (Ken Connelly) writes:
> I'm still at least a little curious about the nx flag, its intended use,
> and why I have gotten a sequential file created a couple of times while the
> nx flag was in place.  At the moment, however, it is only curiosity.
> 

Maybe you did what I did - had the NX flag in place, but was still running
nntp_xmit _without_ the "-x" flag - which tells it that the file is an
index file. 

If you do this, interesting things happen. If the site that you're pushing
news to is down, the nntp_xmit doesn't recover too well, and the next time
it is invoked, you get a bunch of "cannot find newsitem" errors (for _all_
items), and the index file is deleted! What happens (well, this is what
I've induced) is that on the initial connection error, nntp_xmit (thinking
it's dealing with a sequential file) writes a new version of the index
file (as sequential) - but then on the next NEWSADD run, entries get added
to the index file _in RMS indexed format_ (due to the NX entry) - I assume
that such a mixture means you've got one screwed file :-)

The upshot is that this isn't a bug - it's just that certain people like
me don't Read The Manual :-)

Jason Haar, News Bunny
From: tftfm@acad3.alaska.edu (Tom McGrane)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: SET DEF/FAST
Date: 14 Sep 92 06:28:45 GMT
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks

When SET DEF/FAST is set, DIR/ALL acts like it's going to retrieve a 
listing of all groups, but then doesn't.

Using REGISTER newgroup.name  doesn't work, either.  

Can one register for new groups with FAST set, or do you have to 
SET DEF/NOFAST, EXIT, then come back in?


When I do do that, any empty group I'm registered for shows one unread 
message, but none are there.

Thanks.
From: newsmgr@vax1.utulsa.edu (Beelzebub)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: OPEN/MAIL bug
Date: 9 Sep 92 15:51:14 CST
Organization: The University of Tulsa

I'm having problems with a strange bug, has anyone else encountered it?

A student used the OPEN/MAIL command to access his VMS Mail file.  When he
opened the NEWMAIL folder and read the message, a brief VMS error flashed upon
the screen (too quick to read), and then NEWS hung.  After logging in again,
he got the 1 New Mail Message reminder.  He has no new mail, however.  We have
deleted all Mail files, backed up the other files, deleted the account/files,
then restored it, but it still happens!  Any suggestions?  

Running:  VMS 5.5  ANU NEWS 6.0-3

-- 
! Ted H. Holland			*  "I did not want that square root of
! The University of Tulsa               *   minus one; it could not be thought
! Computing and Information Resources   *   out because it was beyond reason."
! newsmgr@vax1.utulsa.edu               *   --Eugene Zamiatin
From: connelly@iscsvax.uni.edu (Ken Connelly)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Life used to be simple . . .
Date: 9 Sep 92 13:37:21 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1992Sep8.142914.6565@iscsvax.uni.edu>, I wrote:
> We've been an "end-node" using ANU for about a year now.  In my news.sys
> file, the "flag" for my feed was an "N".  We're using nntp via MultiNet.
>   [....]
> I changed the "flag" setting in news.sys to "nx", on both the upstream and
> downstream nodes.  Is that the "best" thing to use?  I'm pretty sure I need
> to be using an indexed file instead of a sequential one, and from the
> comments in news.sys, I don't think there are any other good choices, but
> it never hurts to ask.  :-)  What say the collective wisdom of this group?

This may have become a moot point.  Twice in the last two days, the
"indexed" file for my downstream site has been created as a sequential
file.  :-(  When nntp_xmit tries to grab it as an indexed file, it ain't
happy.

So, based upon Bob's recommendation and experience, I have changed my
news.sys back to "n" flags.  I am also processing the ;-0 version of the id
files so that first batches get fed first.

I'm still at least a little curious about the nx flag, its intended use,
and why I have gotten a sequential file created a couple of times while the
nx flag was in place.  At the moment, however, it is only curiosity.

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas, and particularly THANKS to Bob Sloane!!

-- 
===========================================================================
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!
===========================================================================
From: connelly@iscsvax.uni.edu (Ken Connelly)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Life used to be simple . . .
Date: 8 Sep 92 22:12:51 -0500
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <1992Sep8.165009.42852@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bob Sloane) writes:
> In article <1992Sep8.142914.6565@iscsvax.uni.edu>,
>  connelly@iscsvax.uni.edu (Ken Connelly) writes:
>> I changed the "flag" setting in news.sys to "nx", on both the upstream and
>> downstream nodes.  Is that the "best" thing to use?
> 
> I don't know if it is "best" or not. I exchange news with about 15
> other systems and I don't use "nx", I just use "N" and I haven't had
> any complaints yet.

So what happens if you're in the middle of sending a batch to a site with
nntp_xmit and another batch is processed that has items that should be
forwarded to the site you're already sending to?  The sequential file
containing the message-ids is in use and can't be written to.  Is another
version created?  

Idle ramblings in my mind follow.  Please agree or disagree (or ignore) as
you see fit!  ;-)

    Wouldn't that get complicated if you've got 15 sites in news.sys? 
    Maybe not.  A given file for a site would get appended to until it was
    used to send a batch.  Then the next version would be used to collect
    message-ids until *it* was used to send a batch. Etc.

    Using nx would probably tend to create slightly fewer, slightly larger
    batches, right?  Because you may still be appending to the file you're
    sending from.

    So why is nx provided?  If n does the job in a satisfactory way? 
    Geoff??

-- 
===========================================================================
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!
===========================================================================
From: G.Huston@AARNET.EDU.AU (Geoff Huston)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: RE: Using C-News as the server...
Date: 6 Sep 92 12:31:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: cruskit.9209060731.AA19595
Reply-To: Geoff Huston <G.Huston@AARNET.EDU.AU>
In-reply-to: <9209060432.AA12442@jatz.aarnet.edu.au>; from"cctr127@cantva.canterbury.ac.nz" at Sep 6, 92 12:18 pm
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
X-cc:         ANU-NEWS@VM1.NoDak.EDU

> Anyone have any experience running ANU-NEWS as a client off a C-News server?
 
yep - thats how I read my news.
 
> I'm wanting to try it out, but I've noticed that the likes of posting dates
> don't get written reliably on a DIRECTORY scan - so I guess there's a problem
> with either C-News or ANU-NEWS (the former I guess ;-). Also, are there any
> patches that would make C-News more like the NNTP server in ANU - just to make
> life easier on the VMS clients?
 
it all depends how much grunt your server has. Its faster not to display
line counts and post dates (as the server has to open every file and pull
out the requried header) and faster only to displaythe unseenstack
of items.
 
I still find posting a slow and tedious process. I suspect that its a local
problem with the server.
 
> Also, a while back I remember reading in the FAQ on newsreaders that Geoff was
> looking into writing a cut-down version of ANU-NEWS as a pure client - is that
> true?
 
The idea was to cut out all non-referenced code with compile time
definitions. Never got the time to complete it. sigh
 
Geoff
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
From: chris@univrs.decnet.lockheed.com
Subject: LONGJMP error: does UCXQ alone fix it?
Organization: Lockheed Palo Alto Research Labs
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 20:51:46 GMT

  I've seen many people here posting about the "LONGJMP" error you get when
running ANU News with the UCX transport as an NNTP client and you let ANU News
"idle" (no communication with the server) for about five minutes.  If you are
in the  middle of editing a posting with TPU, this same condition results in an 
ugly TPU crash.

  A while back, Bruce Klein from Glassboro State College sent me a patch to
NEWSREMCLIENT.C to turn on the UCX KEEPALIVE option, and said to recompile with
UCXQ(ios) instead of U (sockets).  Well, it seems now like no change to the
code is needed ... simply compiling with UCXQ seems to make the problem go
away.

  Has anybody else solved all their problems of the LONGJMP nature just by
recompiling with UCXQ?  (We are at 6.0-3.)  I'm just afraid I'm mutating the
problem by not patching the source; on the other hand I like to avoid patches
where possible.

Cheers,
 -Chris Rhode
  Software Project Lead, Distributed Computer Systems Support
  Lockheed Research Labs, Palo Alto, CA USA
  (415) 424-2823  chris@lmsc.lockheed.com
From: jonathan@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: NNTP_TCPWINMULTINET.EXE fails: Access Violation
Date: 16 Sep 92 00:02:33 GMT
Organization: The University of Melbourne

Problem:

  %%%%%%%% OPCOM Message from user SYSTEM on HERMES %%%%%%%%
  MultiNet Server: Service NNTP pid 2020889A failed: access violation,
  reason mask=!XB, virtual address=!XL, PC=!XL, PSL=

  %%%%%%%% OPCOM Message from user SYSTEM on HERMES %%%%%%%%
  MultiNet Server: !XL

Configuration:

  VAX 6000-420, VMS v5.4-3, Multinet v3.1, NEWS v6.1B4 (and v6.1B1).
  NO caching of message ids.

This problem occurs frequently here (up to several times per hour on occasion).
Anyone seen this?  Any known fixes?  Known side-effects of this problem?

Thanks,
Jonathan.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan Ridler,                     Telephone:  +61 3 344 7994
Information Technology Services,     Fax:        +61 3 347 4803
The University of Melbourne,         Internet: jonathan@ucsvc.its.unimelb.edu.au
Parkville, Vic., AUSTRALIA, 3052.    PSI:      050523343000305::jonathan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bob Sloane)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Life used to be simple . . .
Date: 8 Sep 92 16:50:09 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <1992Sep8.142914.6565@iscsvax.uni.edu>,
 connelly@iscsvax.uni.edu (Ken Connelly) writes:
> I changed the "flag" setting in news.sys to "nx", on both the upstream and
> downstream nodes.  Is that the "best" thing to use?

I don't know if it is "best" or not. I exchange news with about 15
other systems and I don't use "nx", I just use "N" and I haven't had
any complaints yet.
-- 
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: isjrc@dcatla.uucp (John R. Caruso)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Login script for VAX/VMS calling DOS?
Date: 4 Sep 92 12:58:41 GMT
Organization: Digital Communications Associates, Alpharetta, GA



	I'm sorry if this is the wrong group for this. Where can
	I get a login script so my site can dial into a DOS machine?
	Currently we only have login.vms and login.unix.

	I am on a Vax system. Thanks.

John
From: boag@marshall.wvnet.edu (Bob Boag)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Forwarding BITNET LISTSERVER lists into ANU NEWS
Date: 11 Sep 92 15:40:25 GMT
Organization: Marshall University

Anyone have any nice ways of incorporating BITNET LISTSERV mailing list
messages into NEWS. I do it know but I was hoping someone had a relatively
clean and easy way of doing it.

Please e-mail me directly and I'll summarize to this group.

-- 
Bob Boag                                BITNET:   boag@marshall
Senior Software Systems Analyst         Internet: boag@marshall.wvnet.edu
Marshall University Computer Center     Phone:    (304)696-2624
Huntington, WV 25755-5320               FAX:      (304)696-3601
From: boss@geovax.ed.ac.uk (Bruce Gittings)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: %TPU-F-FAILURE, internal VAXTPU failure
Date: 6 Sep 92 01:28:31 GMT
Organization: University of Edinburgh, Geography Department.

In article <1992Sep3.085200.42747@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bob Sloane) writes:
> 
>> Fatal VAXTPU internal error, please submit an SPR including:
> 
> I haven't ever seen this using the above quotas.  Perhaps you should
> do what it says and submit and SPR.

I didn't see the original posting on this one,  but I can consistently
generate these errors when using TPU over my (1200 baud) modem line.
Simply hold down the "up" or "down" cursor key and after a few dozen repeats
partial escape sequences start being fed to TPU which causes its terminal
demise (please excuse pun!).
 
Regards,

Bruce.
===============================================================================
     __                     __                        E   D I N B U R G H   E D
    /  )         _  _      /  ` ._/_/ . _  _  __     D I N   B U R G H   E D I
   /--<  /`~/ / / )/_)    / _. / / / / / )/ )(      I N B U R   G H   E D I N
  /___/ /  (_/ (_ (_     (__/ / / / / / /(_/__)    N B U R G H     E D I N B
 Dept. of Geography, Univ. of Edinburgh ._/       B U R G H   E D   I N B U
 Drummond Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, Scotland.  U R G H   E D I N B   U R
 E-mail: BRUCE@GEOVAX.ED.AC.UK  Phone: (0)31-650 2558
===============================================================================
From: kmoch@whscdp.whs.edu
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Problem adding a newsgroup
Date: 7 Sep 92 23:16:32 CST
Organization: Washington HS, Milwaukee, WI

I just added a newsgroup request to my checkgroups file.  I then executed
an ADD FILE but received the following message instead of a mail message
with a file which I would extract and execute to actually add the new
group.  Can somebody tell my what I'm doing wrong?

Here is the results of the ADD FILE

$ news/noscreen add file whs_checkgroups.txt
        VMS News - V6.1 (24-Feb-1992)      [NewsManager Access Enabled]


Add - Reading file: DUA0:[UUCP.DOC.NEWS_SETUP]WHS_CHECKGROUPS.TXT;30 (13142
byte
s)

Add  news.admin.ctl,junk.ctl: REJECT (No Message-ID)


...And here are the first few lines of my checkgroups file...

Newsgroups: news.admin.ctl,junk.ctl
Distribution: local
From: news@whscdp.whs.edu
Subject: cmsg checkgroups
Control: checkgroups

alt.bbs.internet	BBS systems accessible via the Internet.
alt.cobol		Use of the programming language COBOL.

-- 
Joe Kmoch                             Washington High School
kmoch@whscdp.whs.edu                  Computer Specialty
(414)449-2765                         2525 N. Sherman Blvd
(414)444-9760 x5488                   Milwaukee, WI  53210
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
From: rankin@eql.caltech.edu (Pat Rankin)
Subject: RE: OPEN/MAIL bug
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 02:11:00 GMT

     Prior to 6.1a{2|3}, ANU-NEWS was using the wrong type of item list
structure for callable mail, so the potential for all sorts of trouble
was present.  It's actually surprising how few reports of problems there
have been; perhaps not many people use NEWS to read their mail...

     You might try grabbing 6.1b4 from Geoff's site and test it out.

		Pat Rankin, rankin@eql.caltech.edu
From: sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bob Sloane)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Problem adding a newsgroup
Date: 8 Sep 92 08:50:11 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <1992Sep7.231632.526@whscdp.whs.edu>, kmoch@whscdp.whs.edu writes:
> I just added a newsgroup request to my checkgroups file.  I then executed
> an ADD FILE but received the following message instead of a mail message
> with a file which I would extract and execute to actually add the new
> group.  Can somebody tell my what I'm doing wrong?
...
> Add  news.admin.ctl,junk.ctl: REJECT (No Message-ID)

This error message means that the article was rejected because it
didn't have a Message-ID header in it. Either add a message-id header,
or use the /GENID qualifer.
-- 
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: boag@marshall.wvnet.edu (Bob Boag)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Small differences between 5.7 and 6.03
Date: 8 Sep 92 21:32:42 GMT
Organization: Marshall University

I just upgraded from NEWS V5.7 to NEWS V6.0-3 and have noticed a couple of
problems. Since 6.0-3 has been out since 14-Mar-1991, I was wondering if anyone
knows of any workarounds for these problems - I check the FAQ and found answers
to a couple of other problems already. Thanks.

1. V5.7 would register me for any new newsgroups that were created since the
last time I used NEWS. V6.0-3 doesn't seem to register me for any new groups
even though my profile says "Automatic REGISTER of new newsgroups: */confirm",
which I assume means "register me for any new groups but ask me first?".
Anyway, no matter how I set the /NEWREGISTER profile setting, I still don't get
any new groups. I did do a REGISTER/RECORD and then later issued a
REGISTER/NEW, and this seems to do what I want, but it is going to be hard to
get my users to enter these REGISTER commands as they are used to automatic
registration.

2. If I press the SKIP key (PF3) for a newgroup, V5.7 would skip all items in
the group. Now it appears as though I've got to get into the newsgroup and
actually use SKIP/NEWSGROUP. Again, I kinda liked the (probably a bug) feature
in V5.7 better.

-- 
Bob Boag                                BITNET:   boag@marshall
Senior Software Systems Analyst         Internet: boag@marshall.wvnet.edu
Marshall University Computer Center     Phone:    (304)696-2624
Huntington, WV 25755-5320               FAX:      (304)696-3601
From: sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Bob Sloane)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: Life used to be simple . . .
Date: 9 Sep 92 08:58:46 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <1992Sep8.221251.6585@iscsvax.uni.edu>,
 connelly@iscsvax.uni.edu (Ken Connelly) writes:
> So what happens if you're in the middle of sending a batch to a site with
> nntp_xmit and another batch is processed that has items that should be
> forwarded to the site you're already sending to?  The sequential file
> containing the message-ids is in use and can't be written to.  Is another
> version created?  

Yes, a new version is created.

>     Wouldn't that get complicated if you've got 15 sites in news.sys? 
>     Maybe not.  A given file for a site would get appended to until it was
>     used to send a batch.  Then the next version would be used to collect
>     message-ids until *it* was used to send a batch. Etc.

Right. Occasionally you will get multiple versions of the ID files,
but they will eventually get processed.  I have things set up so that
the oldest ID file gets processed first by using ";-0" for the version
number to hand to NNTP_XMIT.

>     Using nx would probably tend to create slightly fewer, slightly larger
>     batches, right?  Because you may still be appending to the file you're
>     sending from.

Using NX creates indexed files that never get deleted, and thus grow
infinitly large unless you do something about them.  I have also heard
reports that the indexed files get deleted when NNTP_XMIT is unable to
contact the server.  I haven't been able to verify this, since I don't
use indexed files.
-- 
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 
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
From: mjo@ef2007.efhd.ford.com (Mike O'Connor)
Subject: Re: Bug in "tass"
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, 10 Sep 1992 18:01:11 GMT


Just out of curiosity, is anyone doing development work on tass?

					...Mike

-- 
 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
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
From: seant@sunfish.ratsys.com (Sean D. True)
Subject: Re: News Reader for DOS/FTP Software?
Organization: Rational Systems, Inc.
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 17:51:57 GMT

In article <NEAL.92Sep11161920@neal.ctd.comsat.com> neal@neal.ctd.comsat.com (Neal Becker) writes:
>From: neal@neal.ctd.comsat.com (Neal Becker)
>Subject: News Reader for DOS/FTP Software?
>Date: 11 Sep 92 20:19:20 GMT

>Any recommendations for DOS newsreader to use with FTP Software (NNTP
>to unix server)?
>Thanks.

I am using Trumpet and the NewsX wrapper. Thanks to Peter Tattam
and Guy Helmer, a small amount of code lets Trumpet run under FTP Software
kernels. Looks for newsabi.exe and newsx.exe ... on your favorite FTP site.
================================================================
Sean D. True
Rational Systems, Inc.
seant@ratsys.com -- uunet!rational!seant
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
From: barabbas@bach.udel.edu (Barabbas)
Subject: trn question
Organization: UDelaware, pillar and manna posse
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 19:09:43 GMT

i suppose that i missed out on how to do this,
but how would i make 'tcp/ip' and 
'tcp\ip' valid lines in my kill file?

(if the answer appears on the kill file faq,
just tell me so. i didn't think i saw it in there,
but i might've missed it...)

thanx, and a mailed reply is probably best...

cheers,
barabbas