Path: utzoo!yunexus!maccs!sparkles!dan
From: dan@sparkles.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Dan Trottier)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: xref lines not working in rn
Message-ID: <1989Jul20.130047.11574@sparkles.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 20 Jul 89 13:00:47 GMT
Article-I.D.: sparkles.1989Jul20.130047.11574
References: <244@wupulm.wustl.EDU> <2502@sigma.UUCP> <5484@videovax.tv.Tek.com>
Reply-To: dan@sparkles.UUCP (Dan Trottier)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Lines: 36

In article <5484@videovax.tv.Tek.com> bart@videovax.tv.tek.com (Bart Massey) writes:
>> In article <244@wupulm.wustl.EDU> billc@wupulm.wustl.EDU (Bill Canning) writes:
>> >I have rn 4.3 (patch level 14) and news 2.11 (patch level 34(?))
>> >running on an HP 9000/360 HP-UX 6.2.  Unfortunately, the Xrefs
>> >line is not keeping me from seeing the same message a number of 
>> >times.
>> >I configured news to DOXREFS, and used the Configure file that came
>> >with rn.  Does anyone have any suggestions?
>> 
>The code in bits.c which implements this option (i.e. removes rn's reliance
>on the Relay-Version header, which disappeared as of 2.10.3) also copes with
>the domain portion of the hostname in the xref line.  Without this option,
>an xref line such as
>	Xref: videovax or.forsale:3023 tek.forsale:1881
>will likely be discarded by rn, since the hostname of the system to which
>the article numbers refer either will not be identified or will be
>identified as "videovax.tv.tek.com", and so rn will think the xref line
>was generated on some other machine.


This symptom of not doing Xrefs properly shows up when reading news over 
and nfs mount. The Xrefs line will have the name of the news server but
rn will check that name against the name of the local host.


The ideal fix is to edit bits.c and have chase_xrefs look for a file called
/usr/lib/news/nfshostname (Bnews 2.11) or /usr/lib/news/server (Cnews 1.0).
If that file exists then it is likely that your news directories are mounted
from a server and you need to read the name from the file. That name should
be checked against the name in the Xrefs line.


-- 
Dan Trottier                                            dan@maccs.McMaster.CA
Dept of Computer Science                       ...!uunet!utai!utgpu!maccs!dan
McMaster University                                      (416) 525-9140 x3444