Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!ames!vsi1!lmb
From: lmb@vicom.com (Larry Blair)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Cnews lets outside control messages create groups
Message-ID: <1989Jul16.050248.16940@vicom.com>
Date: 16 Jul 89 05:02:48 GMT
References: <1989Jul7.174914.22890@ivucsb.sba.ca.us> <1989Jul9.040539.28044@utzoo.uucp> <1989Jul9.185601.28603@ladc.bull.com> <1989Jul10.045219.3927@utstat.uucp>
Reply-To: lmb@vicom.COM (Larry Blair)
Organization: VICOM Systems Inc., San Jose, CA
Lines: 102

In article <1989Jul10.045219.3927@utstat.uucp> geoff@utstat.uucp (Geoff Collyer) writes:
=> >Edit /usr/lib/newsbin/ctl/newgroup to do whatever you want.  It's a shell
=> >file.  See notebook/ctlmsg for some insight into how control messages work,
=> >if you haven't looked at it already.
=> Yeah, I could do that.  If I had time.  It seems to me, though, that there
=> should be a configuration parameter somewhere that would do the job for me,
=> a la NORMGROUP/NONEWGROUP in B news.
=
=Henry and I are in the business of providing tools, not solutions to the
=wrong problems.  We cannot possibly guess what everyone in the world is
=going to want, nor do we want to distribute a gargantuan distribution
=consisting of the union of all possible wish lists.  We are interested
=in genuine bug reports, but failing to behave like B news (as opposed to
=failing to meet RFC 1036) is not a bug.  I'm afraid we don't have a lot
=of sympathy for people who can't be bothered to make one-line changes to
=shell scripts.  If the distribution merely doesn't do what you want, you
=have the source and an editor.

Creating newgroups and, particularly, changing the moderation status of
existing groups automatically is insanity.  The default behavior should
not execute newgroup commands.

=> I've noticed this too.  And, Geoff, I think what Todd means is that C news
=> should notify the news admin, _without_ performing the newgroup/rmgroup.
=> Then the news admin (me) could manually create or remove the group.
=
=Again, read the source; newgroup and rmgroup do nothing destructive.

Changing the moderation status _is_ destructive.

For anyone who is interested, here is my fixed newgroup.  Note that I used
"mail -s".

#! /bin/sh
# newgroup group flag - create group (4-field version: B-2.10.3+ compatible)
#	subject to our sys file group pattern

# =()<. ${NEWSCONFIG-@<NEWSCONFIG>@}>()=
. ${NEWSCONFIG-/usr/lib/news/bin/config}
export NEWSCTL NEWSBIN NEWSARTS
PATH=$NEWSCTL/bin:$NEWSBIN/relay:$NEWSBIN:$NEWSPATH ; export PATH # include mkpdir
umask $NEWSUMASK

F=/tmp/nc$$

trap "rm -f $F; echo $gngppat; exit 0" 0
cat >$F

# unapproved ctl msg? then quit
grep -s '^Approved:' $F >/dev/null || { rm -f $F; exit 0; }

SENDER="`grep '^Sender:' $F | sed 's/^[^:]*: *//'`"
case "$SENDER" in
"")	SENDER="`grep '^From:' $F | sed 's/^[^:]*: *//' `" ;;
esac

greppat="^`echo $1 | sed 's/\./\\\\./g' ` "
if grep -s "$greppat" $NEWSCTL/active >/dev/null; then	# group exists?
	export SENDER
	case "$2" in
	moderated)	flag=m ;;
	*)		flag=y ;;
	esac

	aflag=`awk "/$1/"' { print $4 }' $NEWSCTL/active`
	if test "$aflag" != "$flag" -a \( "$aflag" = m -o "$aflag" = y \); then
	# old & new flags differ & old flag is m or y
	case "$flag" in
	m)	pfx="" ;;
	*)	pfx=un ;;
	esac
	mail -s "Change $1 to ${pfx}moderated" $NEWSMASTER <<!
$SENDER has request that newsgroup $1 be changed to ${pfx}moderated.
!
	fi
	exit
fi

me="`newshostname`"
gngppat=`awk -f $NEWSBIN/relay/canonsys.awk $NEWSCTL/sys |
	egrep "^($me|ME):" |
	awk -F: '
{
	fields = split($2, field2, "/")
	print field2[1]
	exit
}' `
if gngp -a "$gngppat" >/dev/null <<!
$1
!
then			# no group in active, but sys file likes it: make it
	case "$2" in
	moderated)	flag=m ;;
	*)		flag=y ;;
	esac
	# make the directory since rn will bitch if it's missing
	mail -s "Newgroup $1 $2" $NEWSMASTER <<!
$SENDER has requested that you create $1 $2.
!
fi
-- 
Larry Blair   ames!vsi1!lmb   lmb@vicom.com