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From: bnews@nixpbe.UUCP (Martin Boening)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Something I don't understand about News 2.11.19 and ihave/sendme
Message-ID: <651@nixpbe.UUCP>
Date: 23 Nov 89 10:35:05 GMT
Organization: Nixdorf Computer AG, Paderborn, Germany
Lines: 101

Hello out there,

here's something I find strange about news 2.11, patchlevel 19 which I'm
administering at this site:

Today I tested the transmission of news to another host by using the ihave/
sendme protocol specified in the installation guide. To this end I set up
a news installation on pbutest, a host we have standing around here. I set up
this sys entry for it, specifying the F and I flags and keeping the fourth
field blank:

pbutest:world,dnet,eunet,nix,usa,na,nix.all,eunet.all,dnet.all,comp.all,\
news.all,sci.all,soc.all,rec.all,talk.all,misc.all,gnu.all,bionet.all,\
alt.all,control,to.test:FI:

This is supposed to set up things such that articles coming in for pbutest
are stored in a file pbutest.ihave, if I understand it correctly. However,
they are stored in pbutest. This struck me as strange. I moved the file to
pbutest.ihave. It contained entries in the following format (using one entry
for example's sake):

/usr/bnews/spool/comp/sources/wanted/3316	<246@dyndata.UUCP>

(thats 'path<TAB>Message-ID')

After moving to pbutest.ihave, the 'sendbatch -i pbutest' worked and produced
the following 'ihave' control message:

Path: nixpbe!bnews
From: bnews@nixpbe.UUCP (Martin Boening)
Newsgroups: to.pbutest.ctl
Subject: ihave nixpbe
Message-ID: <648@nixpbe.UUCP>
Date: 23 Nov 89 08:24:19 GMT
Control: ihave nixpbe
Organization: Nixdorf Computer AG, Paderborn, Germany
Lines: 2

/usr/bnews/spool/comp/sources/wanted/3316	<246@dyndata.UUCP>


Obviously it just copied pbutest.ihave into a control message. Anyhow,
after a while, the following 'sendme' message came back:

Path: nixpbe!pbutest!mboen
From: usenet@pbutest.UUCP
Newsgroups: to.nixpbe.ctl
Subject: sendme pbutest
Message-ID: <3@pbutest.UUCP>
Date: 23 Nov 89 08:32:41 GMT
Control: sendme pbutest
Lines: 2

/usr/bnews/spool/comp/sources/wanted/3316	<246@dyndata.UUCP>

Again, obviously the 'ihave' was simply changed to a 'sendme' control
message with some furious header editing.

This produced the log entry

Nov 23 10:14    pbutest System pbutest wants unavailable article \
/usr/bnews/spool/comp/sources/wanted/3316      <246@dyndata.UUCP>.

This caused me to have a look at the sources of the news software and
there I found that control.c states explicitly that only article ids
should be passed around. So, makeing the following 'sendme' message out of
the previous one:

Path: nixpbe!pbutest!mboen
From: usenet@pbutest.UUCP
Newsgroups: to.nixpbe.ctl
Subject: sendme pbutest
Message-ID: <4@pbutest.UUCP>
Date: 23 Nov 89 08:32:41 GMT
Control: sendme pbutest
Lines: 2

<246@dyndata.UUCP>

I did indeed see an article get spooled in the file 'pbutest' for later
processing by sendbatch (without the -i option).

What I don't understand, is why is the pathname for the file the incoming
article is stored in inserted into the '.ihave' file (quite apart from why
the .ihave file isn't correctly set up). The control message handling stuff
quite obviously expects to handle article ids and not these strange combi-
nations.

Does anybody have experience with the 'ihave/sendme' stuff? Similar?
Contrary?

Please send in replies by mail to mboening.pad@nixpbe.uucp, if you're
in Europe or to {...}!uunet!philabs!linus!nixbur!mboening.pad, if you're
elswhere in this world. Thanx in advance.

Martin Boening
-- 
Martin Boening, c/o Nixdorf Computer AG, DS-CC2, Paderborn, West-Germany
Email:                                 |  Phone: (+49) 5251 146155
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