704 lines
13 KiB
HTML
704 lines
13 KiB
HTML
<HTML
|
|
><HEAD
|
|
><TITLE
|
|
>Documentation, information and further reading</TITLE
|
|
><META
|
|
NAME="GENERATOR"
|
|
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+
|
|
"><LINK
|
|
REL="HOME"
|
|
TITLE="Usenet News HOWTO "
|
|
HREF="index.html"><LINK
|
|
REL="PREVIOUS"
|
|
TITLE="Usenet software: a historical perspective"
|
|
HREF="softwarehistory.html"><LINK
|
|
REL="NEXT"
|
|
TITLE="Wrapping up"
|
|
HREF="x1586.html"></HEAD
|
|
><BODY
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
|
|
TEXT="#000000"
|
|
LINK="#0000FF"
|
|
VLINK="#840084"
|
|
ALINK="#0000FF"
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
|
|
><TABLE
|
|
SUMMARY="Header navigation table"
|
|
WIDTH="100%"
|
|
BORDER="0"
|
|
CELLPADDING="0"
|
|
CELLSPACING="0"
|
|
><TR
|
|
><TH
|
|
COLSPAN="3"
|
|
ALIGN="center"
|
|
>Usenet News HOWTO</TH
|
|
></TR
|
|
><TR
|
|
><TD
|
|
WIDTH="10%"
|
|
ALIGN="left"
|
|
VALIGN="bottom"
|
|
><A
|
|
HREF="softwarehistory.html"
|
|
ACCESSKEY="P"
|
|
>Prev</A
|
|
></TD
|
|
><TD
|
|
WIDTH="80%"
|
|
ALIGN="center"
|
|
VALIGN="bottom"
|
|
></TD
|
|
><TD
|
|
WIDTH="10%"
|
|
ALIGN="right"
|
|
VALIGN="bottom"
|
|
><A
|
|
HREF="x1586.html"
|
|
ACCESSKEY="N"
|
|
>Next</A
|
|
></TD
|
|
></TR
|
|
></TABLE
|
|
><HR
|
|
ALIGN="LEFT"
|
|
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H1
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1414">14. Documentation, information and further reading</H1
|
|
><P
|
|
>This section fills in gaps which were hard to classify under any
|
|
of the previous chapters.</P
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H2
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1417">14.1. The manpages</H2
|
|
><P
|
|
>The following manpages are installed automatically when our
|
|
integrated software distribution is compiled and installed, listed here
|
|
in no particular order:</P
|
|
><P
|
|
></P
|
|
><UL
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>badexpiry:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
utility to look for articles with bad explicit Expiry headers</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>checkactive:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
utility to perform some sanity checks on the <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>active</TT
|
|
>
|
|
file</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>cnewsdo:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
utility to perform some checks and then run C-News maintenance commands</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>controlperm:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
configuration file for controlling responses to Usenet control messages</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>expire:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
utility to expire old articles</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>explode:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
internal utility to convert a master batch file to ordinary batch files</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>inews:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
the program which forms the entry point for fresh postings to be
|
|
injected into the Usenet system</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>mergeactive:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
utility to merge one site's newsgroups to another site's
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>active</TT
|
|
> file</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>mkhistory:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
utility to rebuild news <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>history</TT
|
|
> file</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>news(5):</TT
|
|
>
|
|
description of Usenet news article file and batch file formats</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newsaux:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
a collection of C-News utilities used by its own scripts and by the
|
|
Usenet news administrator for various maintenance purposes</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newsbatch:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
covers all the utilities and programs which are part of the news
|
|
batching system of C-News</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newsctl:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
describes the file formats and uses of all the files in
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>$NEWSCTL</TT
|
|
> other than the two key files,
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>sys</TT
|
|
> and <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>active</TT
|
|
></P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newsdb:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
describes the key files and directories for news articles, including the
|
|
structure of <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>$NEWSARTS</TT
|
|
>, the <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>active</TT
|
|
>
|
|
file, the <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>active.times</TT
|
|
> file, and the
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>history</TT
|
|
> file.</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newsflag:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
utility to change the flag or type column of a newsgroup in the
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>active</TT
|
|
> file</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newsmail:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
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.</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newsmaint:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
utility scripts used by Usenet administrator to manage and maintain
|
|
C-News system</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newsoverview(5):</TT
|
|
>
|
|
file formats for the NOV database</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newsoverview(8):</TT
|
|
>
|
|
library functions of the NOV library and the utilities which use them</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>newssys:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
the important <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>sys</TT
|
|
> file of C-News</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>relaynews:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
the <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>relaynews</TT
|
|
> program of C-News</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>report:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
utility to generate and send email reports of errors and events from
|
|
C-News scripts</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>rnews:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
receive news batches and queue them for processing</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>nntpd:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
The NNTP daemon</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>nntpxmit:</TT
|
|
>
|
|
The NNTP batch transmit program for outgoing push feeds</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
></UL
|
|
></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H2
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1509">14.2. Papers, documents, articles</H2
|
|
><P
|
|
>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.</P
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H3
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1512">14.2.1. The Usenix paper on C News</H3
|
|
><P
|
|
>This very interesting paper has been mentioned in the section titled
|
|
<SPAN
|
|
CLASS="QUOTE"
|
|
>"<A
|
|
HREF="softwarehistory.html"
|
|
>Usenet software: a historical perspective</A
|
|
>>"</SPAN
|
|
>. It is titled ``News
|
|
Need Not Be Slow'', and is available from
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>ftp://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/doc/programming/c-news.*</TT
|
|
> or
|
|
from our Website
|
|
(<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/doc/c-news.{ps,pdf}</TT
|
|
>).</P
|
|
><P
|
|
>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.</P
|
|
></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H3
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1520">14.2.2. The Usenix paper on INN</H3
|
|
><P
|
|
>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
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/nntp/inn/inn.usenix.ps.Z</TT
|
|
>
|
|
or from our Website
|
|
(<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/doc/inn.usenix.{ps,pdf}</TT
|
|
>),
|
|
uncompressed.
|
|
Be warned: this PostScript file is probably missing some mandatory
|
|
first-line tag like <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>%!PS-Adobe-1.0</TT
|
|
> and some
|
|
PostScript processors can have problems with it. For instance, on our
|
|
Linux boxes, <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>ghostview</TT
|
|
> can display it, but
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>kghostview</TT
|
|
> can't, which is very strange.</P
|
|
><P
|
|
>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 <EM
|
|
>only</EM
|
|
> in situations which
|
|
its author had specifically targeted, <EM
|
|
>i.e.</EM
|
|
> multiple
|
|
parallel incoming NNTP feeds. There is no clear superiority of one
|
|
system over the other in any other situation.</P
|
|
></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H3
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1531">14.2.3. The C News guide</H3
|
|
><P
|
|
>This document is part of the C-News source, and is available in
|
|
the <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>c-news/doc</TT
|
|
> directory of the source tree. The
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>makefile</TT
|
|
> here uses <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>troff</TT
|
|
> and the
|
|
source files to generate <TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>guide.ps</TT
|
|
>. This C News Guide
|
|
is a very well-written document and provides an introduction to the
|
|
functioning of C News.</P
|
|
></DIV
|
|
></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H2
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1538">14.3. O'Reilly's books on Usenet news</H2
|
|
><P
|
|
>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.</P
|
|
><P
|
|
>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.</P
|
|
><P
|
|
>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.</P
|
|
></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H2
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1543">14.4. Usenet-related RFCs</H2
|
|
><P
|
|
>TO BE ADDED</P
|
|
></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H2
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1546">14.5. The source code</H2
|
|
><P
|
|
>TO BE ADDED</P
|
|
></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H2
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1549">14.6. Usenet newsgroups</H2
|
|
><P
|
|
>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:</P
|
|
><P
|
|
></P
|
|
><UL
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>news.admin.technical</TT
|
|
>
|
|
Discusses technical issues about administering Usenet news</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>news.admin.policy</TT
|
|
>
|
|
Discusses policy issues about Usenet news</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
><LI
|
|
><P
|
|
><TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>news.software.b</TT
|
|
>
|
|
Discusses C-News (no separate newsgroup was created after B-News gave
|
|
way to C-News) source, configuration and bugs (if any)</P
|
|
></LI
|
|
></UL
|
|
><P
|
|
>MORE WILL BE ADDED LATER</P
|
|
></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><H2
|
|
CLASS="SECTION"
|
|
><A
|
|
NAME="AEN1563">14.7. We</H2
|
|
><P
|
|
>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.</P
|
|
><P
|
|
>We also offer you an integrated source distribution
|
|
of C News, NNTPd, as discussed earlier in the section titled
|
|
<SPAN
|
|
CLASS="QUOTE"
|
|
>"<A
|
|
HREF="settingup.html"
|
|
>Setting up C News + NNTPd</A
|
|
>>"</SPAN
|
|
>. 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
|
|
(<EM
|
|
>e.g.</EM
|
|
> key directory paths are specified consistently
|
|
across all components, <EM
|
|
>etc.</EM
|
|
>) This is available at
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/src/</TT
|
|
></P
|
|
><P
|
|
>The URL
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/src/archives/</TT
|
|
>
|
|
holds the original sources of some of the software components we base our
|
|
distribution on. These include C News (<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>c-news.tar.Z</TT
|
|
>),
|
|
NNTPd (<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>nntp.1.5.12.1.tar.Z</TT
|
|
>), and Nestor
|
|
(<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>nestor.tar.Z</TT
|
|
>). Other components, like
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>pgpverify</TT
|
|
> are maintained by their current maintainers
|
|
and can be obtained from their respective sites. Therefore, they are not
|
|
included in our archives.</P
|
|
><P
|
|
>The URL
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>http://www.starcomsoftware.com/proj/usenet/doc/</TT
|
|
>
|
|
carries copies of some of the important technical articles and Usenix
|
|
papers on the subject of the Usenet.</P
|
|
><P
|
|
>We will endeavour to answer all queries sent to
|
|
<TT
|
|
CLASS="LITERAL"
|
|
>usenet@starcomsoftware.com</TT
|
|
>, 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.</P
|
|
><P
|
|
>We may not be in a position to assist with software components we
|
|
are not familiar with, <EM
|
|
>e.g.</EM
|
|
> Leafnode, or platforms
|
|
we do not have access to, <EM
|
|
>e.g.</EM
|
|
> 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.</P
|
|
><P
|
|
>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.</P
|
|
></DIV
|
|
></DIV
|
|
><DIV
|
|
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
|
|
><HR
|
|
ALIGN="LEFT"
|
|
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
|
|
SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
|
|
WIDTH="100%"
|
|
BORDER="0"
|
|
CELLPADDING="0"
|
|
CELLSPACING="0"
|
|
><TR
|
|
><TD
|
|
WIDTH="33%"
|
|
ALIGN="left"
|
|
VALIGN="top"
|
|
><A
|
|
HREF="softwarehistory.html"
|
|
ACCESSKEY="P"
|
|
>Prev</A
|
|
></TD
|
|
><TD
|
|
WIDTH="34%"
|
|
ALIGN="center"
|
|
VALIGN="top"
|
|
><A
|
|
HREF="index.html"
|
|
ACCESSKEY="H"
|
|
>Home</A
|
|
></TD
|
|
><TD
|
|
WIDTH="33%"
|
|
ALIGN="right"
|
|
VALIGN="top"
|
|
><A
|
|
HREF="x1586.html"
|
|
ACCESSKEY="N"
|
|
>Next</A
|
|
></TD
|
|
></TR
|
|
><TR
|
|
><TD
|
|
WIDTH="33%"
|
|
ALIGN="left"
|
|
VALIGN="top"
|
|
>Usenet software: a historical perspective</TD
|
|
><TD
|
|
WIDTH="34%"
|
|
ALIGN="center"
|
|
VALIGN="top"
|
|
> </TD
|
|
><TD
|
|
WIDTH="33%"
|
|
ALIGN="right"
|
|
VALIGN="top"
|
|
>Wrapping up</TD
|
|
></TR
|
|
></TABLE
|
|
></DIV
|
|
></BODY
|
|
></HTML
|
|
> |