Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!cpdaux!steve From: steve@cpdaux.UUCP (Steve Lemke) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Usenet software Message-ID: <543@cpdaux.UUCP> Date: 12 Oct 89 13:52:09 GMT References: <651@wet.UUCP> <539@cpdaux.UUCP> <658@wet.UUCP> Reply-To: cpdaux!steve@apple.com (Steve Lemke) Distribution: usa Organization: Computer Products Design, Santa Clara, CA Lines: 85 In article <658@wet.UUCP> epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) writes: }In article <539@cpdaux.UUCP> cpdaux!steve@apple.com (Steve Lemke) writes: }My experience with B News is limited to this machine (wet) under }SysV/386 and the NeXT. On the 386, the limiting factor on }unpacking news is the speed of compress. B expire runs just fine }with about 110MB in the news spool. (note that I'm using dbz on }the Sys V machine). On the NeXT I'm NNTP-only, so I don't have }to deal with compression. C expire may be a win, I don't know }yet. What's dbz, and how hard is it to get bnews to use it? I seem to remember something about using database functions, but I can't remember what program that was in, since over a three-day span I tried to compile elm, bnews, rn, cnews, and nn. }>I ran into several problems with the configure scripts also - I wonder }>if the Configure script will be changed to be more NeXT-friendly. } }Well... I just brought up rrn under SunOs and it didn't do too }much better. SunOS looks like both USG and BSD, and Configure }happily brought in both ioctl and termio. And got other things }wrong too. That's strange - I was (at one point) thinking of giving this up to do it all on one of the Suns - a friend said that just about everything would work on them without a problem. It would actually be nice to get rrn working on them (eventually) with nntp running on the NeXT so people can use the Suns too in addition to the NeXT machine for reading news/mail. }>Any chance when you're finished of sending the problems back to the }>appropriate people... } }Who are the "appropriate people"? I've never been able to get a }non-automated answer from Larry Wall. I have no idea - it just sounded like a good idea at the time! }>What did you do about Pnews not being able to create a .newsrc? } }Pnews doesn't create .newsrc; newsetup does, and that's invoked }by rn. newsetup claims a limit of 10 w's per sed, but it's }really 9. Basically you nuke all the "net" "mod" "fa" stuff }that's no longer used and things are ok. This too is fixed in }the rrn patches, although I think that misses putting "to" groups }in .newsrc. Oops, my mistake - but you figured out what I meant. Thanks - I'll take a look at that later this morning. }>}A few more things too, that I don't remember at the moment. } }Like linking with the shareable library! Big win, especially on }8MB cubes. OK, how does one do this? I remember seeing something in one of the NeXT manuals about a parm that can be added to the link command to use shared libraries - is that what you're referring to? }>We only have a single 660 mb drive, but it's only got about 260mb on it }>right now. Any parameter changes we should make when we get a full news }>feed going on it? (The machine has 8mb of RAM though we'll probably try }>to bump that up to 16mb if it will help). } }Do you have a single partition or two? (If you're a netboot }server the second partition is spoken for). Inodes are good. }usenet likes many, many small files. stan@cs.sfsu.edu built the }partition; I don't have the numbers handy. We have two partitions - I assume they're in the "standard" config, where as you said, the second would be used if it was a netboot server, which it is not. Should I tweak parms for the second partition (how?) and use it for /usr/spool? How much of a difference will more memory make? Someone did something time-consuming through TelNet the other day, and the person sitting at the console playing billiards had a fit when the machine slowed to a crawl... Thanks for all the help - I'm posting this rather than mailing it since I'm assuming that somewhere else out there someone else may benefit from this, or others may have answers to some of the questions. After all, that's why I started reading this group - to get everything going on the NeXT machine! -- ----- Steve Lemke ------------------- "MS-DOS (OS/2, etc.) - just say no!" ----- Internet: cpdaux!steve@apple.com GEnie: LEMKE ----- Or try: apple!cpdaux!steve CompuServe: 73627,570 ----- Quote: "What'd I go to college for?" "You had fun, didn't you?"