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From: munnari!csc.anu.oz.au!gih900@UUNET.UU.NET (Geoff Huston)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: Re: NNTP server suggestion.
Message-ID: <8908011515.AA16347@uunet.uu.net>
Date: 1 Aug 89 13:37:47 GMT
Sender: ANU-NEWS Discussion <ANU-NEWS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Reply-To: Geoff Huston <munnari!csc.anu.oz.au!gih900@UUNET.UU.NET>
Lines: 21

>In article <1736@bmc.uu.se>, Mats.Sundvall@bmc.uu.se (Mats Sundvall) writes:
>> Is it possible to have the NNTP server add the news entries into
>> the database when it is recieved instead of writing it to a file for
>> later processing by NEWS/ADD.
>
>I agree this would be a good thing to do, but I doubt that it will happen. The
>problem is that there is no method of synchronizing two processes updateing
>the database files concurently. Currently, NEWS works reasonably well because
>the vast majority of the database updating is done by a single job.  Real,
>live NEWS readers just don't post things that often, so it doesn't happen very
>often that two processes try to update the database at the same time.  If the
>NNTP server also updated the database, there would be more problems. Actually,
>it does post articles directly when the POST command is used.
     
The problem is not one of synchronization - synchronization is handled by use
of RMS locks in records in both database files. The problem is simply one of
the complexity of the changes which are necessary - the environment of the ADD
procedures is not easily imported into the NNTP_SERVER process.
     
Geoff Huston
gih900@csc.anu.oz.au