Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ssbell!kent
From: kent@ssbell.UUCP (Kent Landfield)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: A few questions/comments on Rkive
Keywords: long rkive archive sources USENET
Message-ID: <523@ssbell.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jul 89 05:28:20 GMT
References: <1123@ssp15.idca.tds.philips.nl> <520@ssbell.UUCP> <1989Jul7.022708.4826@eci386.uucp>
Reply-To: kent@ssbell.UUCP (Kent Landfield)
Organization: Sterling Software, FSG-IMD, Bellevue, NE.
Lines: 42

In article <1989Jul7.022708.4826@eci386.uucp> clewis@eci386.UUCP (Chris Lewis) writes:
# Actually, what might be better (from the point of view of trying to
# collect lots of articles before bothering the MAIL: people) is to parse
# a batch file.  For example, I have the following (C-news) sys file entry:
# 
#     maps:comp.mail.maps/all:f:
# 
# Which places the file name of each article in comp.mail.maps, and I
# have a cron entry that runs a script that pulls each file name out
# and unpacks it, calls pathalias and sends mail to me.  
# 
# This allows you to schedule when rkive runs, and it isn't dependent
# on expiration (much).  Receiving on stdin could be rather unpleasant
# w.r.t. performance at times....

Ok. I think I am being dumb here (it would not be a first) but I don't see 
how this is really any different then what rkive does now. I can schedule 
rkive to run via cron any time I wish and with as much frequency. The 
difference is that this would get the file names from a different file/stdin 
where as the current rkive gets the file names from the news directory 
structure. You are still dependent on expire since the file specified 
must still exist in both the current and this approach when it is time to 
"rkive" the file.  Like I said, I am probably just missing the point.

# The other main deficiency that I discovered so far is that you try
# so* hard to ensure that the .cf file is correct, that you don't allow
# some additional niceties.  For example, each entry in "MAIL:" is
# verified by calls to getpwnam().  That means that all three entries
# will fail validation:
# 	MAIL: eci386!clewis, clewis@eci386, alias-in-global-alias-file

Yep. Try to check too little and you fall in a black hole. Try to check
to much and you choke off flexible usage. Somewhere in between is a path
on which you can breath... I made this a compile time decision by adding
an ifdef around the getpwnam call.

			-Kent+
---
Kent Landfield               UUCP:     kent@ssbell
Sterling Software FSG/IMD    INTERNET: kent@ssbell.uu.net
1404 Ft. Crook Rd. South     Phone:    (402) 291-8300 
Bellevue, NE. 68005-2969     FAX:      (402) 291-4362