mirror of https://github.com/tLDP/LDP
307 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
307 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
<section><title>Documentation, information and further reading</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>This section fills in gaps which were hard to classify under any
|
|
of the previous chapters.</para>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>The manpages</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>The following manpages are installed automatically when our
|
|
integrated software distribution is compiled and installed, listed here
|
|
in no particular order:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>badexpiry:</literal>
|
|
utility to look for articles with bad explicit Expiry headers
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>checkactive:</literal>
|
|
utility to perform some sanity checks on the <literal>active</literal>
|
|
file
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>cnewsdo:</literal>
|
|
utility to perform some checks and then run C-News maintenance commands
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>controlperm:</literal>
|
|
configuration file for controlling responses to Usenet control messages
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>expire:</literal>
|
|
utility to expire old articles
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>explode:</literal>
|
|
internal utility to convert a master batch file to ordinary batch files
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>inews:</literal>
|
|
the program which forms the entry point for fresh postings to be
|
|
injected into the Usenet system
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>mergeactive:</literal>
|
|
utility to merge one site's newsgroups to another site's
|
|
<literal>active</literal> file
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>mkhistory:</literal>
|
|
utility to rebuild news <literal>history</literal> file
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>news(5):</literal>
|
|
description of Usenet news article file and batch file formats
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newsaux:</literal>
|
|
a collection of C-News utilities used by its own scripts and by the
|
|
Usenet news administrator for various maintenance purposes
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newsbatch:</literal>
|
|
covers all the utilities and programs which are part of the news
|
|
batching system of C-News
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newsctl:</literal>
|
|
describes the file formats and uses of all the files in
|
|
<literal>$NEWSCTL</literal> other than the two key files,
|
|
<literal>sys</literal> and <literal>active</literal>
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newsdb:</literal>
|
|
describes the key files and directories for news articles, including the
|
|
structure of <literal>$NEWSARTS</literal>, the <literal>active</literal>
|
|
file, the <literal>active.times</literal> file, and the
|
|
<literal>history</literal> file.
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newsflag:</literal>
|
|
utility to change the flag or type column of a newsgroup in the
|
|
<literal>active</literal> file
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newsmail:</literal>
|
|
utility scripts used to send and receive newsfeeds by email. This is
|
|
different from a mail-to-news gateway, since this is for communication
|
|
between two Usenet news servers.
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newsmaint:</literal>
|
|
utility scripts used by Usenet administrator to manage and maintain
|
|
C-News system
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newsoverview(5):</literal>
|
|
file formats for the NOV database
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newsoverview(8):</literal>
|
|
library functions of the NOV library and the utilities which use them
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>newssys:</literal>
|
|
the important <literal>sys</literal> file of C-News
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>relaynews:</literal>
|
|
the <literal>relaynews</literal> program of C-News
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>report:</literal>
|
|
utility to generate and send email reports of errors and events from
|
|
C-News scripts
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>rnews:</literal>
|
|
receive news batches and queue them for processing
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>nntpd:</literal>
|
|
The NNTP daemon
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>nntpxmit:</literal>
|
|
The NNTP batch transmit program for outgoing push feeds
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>Papers, documents, articles</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>There are certain documents and published conference papers which
|
|
are a must-read for Usenet server administrators, both for their
|
|
historical value and for the insight they give into Usenet server
|
|
architecture in general. We list our chart-toppers here.
|
|
</para>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>The Usenix paper on C News</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>This very interesting paper has been mentioned in the section titled
|
|
<quote><xref linkend="softwarehistory"/></quote>. It is titled ``News
|
|
Need Not Be Slow'', and is available from
|
|
<literal>ftp://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/doc/programming/c-news.*</literal> or
|
|
from our Website
|
|
(<literal>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/doc/c-news.{ps,pdf}</literal>).
|
|
</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>It focuses on B News, analyses it for performance, and
|
|
demonstrates how specific changes in design and implementation can speed
|
|
things up. It is well-written, and is educative in many areas
|
|
independent of Usenet news.</para>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>The Usenix paper on INN</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>This paper talks about the things that C News didn't address,
|
|
and takes Usenet news processing into the world of pure Internet
|
|
connectivity. Its author is Rich Salz, the author of INN, and the paper
|
|
is titled ``InterNetNews: Usenet Transport for Internet Sites.'' This
|
|
can be picked up from
|
|
<literal>ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/nntp/inn/inn.usenix.ps.Z</literal>
|
|
or from our Website
|
|
(<literal>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/doc/inn.usenix.{ps,pdf}</literal>),
|
|
uncompressed.
|
|
Be warned: this PostScript file is probably missing some mandatory
|
|
first-line tag like <literal>%!PS-Adobe-1.0</literal> and some
|
|
PostScript processors can have problems with it. For instance, on our
|
|
Linux boxes, <literal>ghostview</literal> can display it, but
|
|
<literal>kghostview</literal> can't, which is very strange.
|
|
</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>This paper analyses the world of Usenet servers with C News and
|
|
NNTPd, in the presence of multiple parallel feeds, and proceeds to build
|
|
a case for a powerful NNTP-optimised software architecture which will
|
|
handle multiple parallel incoming NNTP feeds efficiently. What later INN
|
|
users appear to miss sometimes when comparing C-News+NNTPd with INN, is
|
|
that INN's strengths are <emphasis>only</emphasis> in situations which
|
|
its author had specifically targeted, <emphasis>i.e.</emphasis> multiple
|
|
parallel incoming NNTP feeds. There is no clear superiority of one
|
|
system over the other in any other situation.
|
|
</para>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>The C News guide</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>This document is part of the C-News source, and is available in
|
|
the <literal>c-news/doc</literal> directory of the source tree. The
|
|
<literal>makefile</literal> here uses <literal>troff</literal> and the
|
|
source files to generate <literal>guide.ps</literal>. This C News Guide
|
|
is a very well-written document and provides an introduction to the
|
|
functioning of C News.</para>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>O'Reilly's books on Usenet news</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>O'Reilly and Associates had an excellent book that can form the
|
|
foundations for understanding C-News and Usenet news in general, titled
|
|
``Managing UUCP and Usenet,'' dated 1992. This was considered a bit
|
|
dated because it did not cover INN or the Internet protocols.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>They have subsequently published a more recent book, titled
|
|
``Managing Usenet,'' written by Henry Spencer, the co-author of C-News,
|
|
and David Lawrence, one of the most respected Usenet veterans and
|
|
administrators today. The book was published in 1998 and includes both
|
|
C-News and INN.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>We have a distinct preference for books published by O'Reilly; we
|
|
usually find them the best books on their subjects. We make no attempts
|
|
to hide this bias. We recommend both books. In fact, we believe that
|
|
there is very little of value in this HOWTO for someone who studies one
|
|
of these books and then peruses information on the Internet.</para>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>Usenet-related RFCs</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>TO BE ADDED</para>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>The source code</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>TO BE ADDED</para>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>Usenet newsgroups</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>There are many discussion groups on the Usenet dedicated to the
|
|
technical and non-technical issues in managing a Usenet server and
|
|
service. These are:</para>
|
|
|
|
<itemizedlist>
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>news.admin.technical</literal>
|
|
Discusses technical issues about administering Usenet news
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>news.admin.policy</literal>
|
|
Discusses policy issues about Usenet news
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
<listitem><para><literal>news.software.b</literal>
|
|
Discusses C-News (no separate newsgroup was created after B-News gave
|
|
way to C-News) source, configuration and bugs (if any)
|
|
</para></listitem>
|
|
</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
|
<para>MORE WILL BE ADDED LATER</para>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<section><title>We</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>We, at Starcom Software, offer the services of our Usenet news
|
|
team to provide assistance to you by email, as a service to the Linux
|
|
and Usenet administrator community, on a best effort basis.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>We also offer you an integrated source distribution
|
|
of C News, NNTPd, as discussed earlier in the section titled
|
|
<quote><xref linkend="settingup"/></quote>. This integrated
|
|
source distribution fixes some bugs in the component packages it
|
|
includes, and it comes pre-configured with ready made configuration
|
|
files which allow all components to be compiled and installed
|
|
on a Linux server in a manner by which they can work together
|
|
(<emphasis>e.g.</emphasis> key directory paths are specified consistently
|
|
across all components, <emphasis>etc.</emphasis>) This is available at
|
|
<literal>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/src/</literal></para>
|
|
|
|
<para>The URL
|
|
<literal>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/src/archives/</literal>
|
|
holds the original sources of some of the software components we base our
|
|
distribution on. These include C News (<literal>c-news.tar.Z</literal>),
|
|
NNTPd (<literal>nntp.1.5.12.1.tar.Z</literal>), and Nestor
|
|
(<literal>nestor.tar.Z</literal>). Other components, like
|
|
<literal>pgpverify</literal> are maintained by their current maintainers
|
|
and can be obtained from their respective sites. Therefore, they are not
|
|
included in our archives.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>The URL
|
|
<literal>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/doc/</literal>
|
|
carries copies of some of the important technical articles and Usenix
|
|
papers on the subject of the Usenet.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>We will endeavour to answer all queries sent to
|
|
<literal>usenet@starcomsoftware.com</literal>, pertaining to the source
|
|
distribution we have put together and its configuration and maintenance,
|
|
and also pertaining to general technical issues related to running a
|
|
Usenet news service off a Unix or Linux server.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>We may not be in a position to assist with software components we
|
|
are not familiar with, <emphasis>e.g.</emphasis> Leafnode, or platforms
|
|
we do not have access to, <emphasis>e.g.</emphasis> SGI IRIX. Intel
|
|
Linux will be supported as long as our group is alive; our entire office
|
|
runs on Linux servers and diskless Linux desktops.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>You are not forced to be dependent on us, because neither do we
|
|
have proprietary knowledge nor proprietary closed-source software. All
|
|
the extensions we are currently involved in with C-News and NNTPd will
|
|
immediately be made available to the Internet in freely redistributable
|
|
source form.</para>
|
|
|
|
</section>
|
|
</section>
|