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From: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Source Posting Proposal
Message-ID: <1990Aug4.123644.1949@math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 4 Aug 90 12:36:44 GMT
References: <5389@plains.UUCP> <1280@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au>
Sender: usenet@math.lsa.umich.edu
Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor
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In article <1280@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au> cagney@chook.ua.oz (Andrew Cagney - aka Noid) writes:
>At present when someone posts an article to the net it is dropped into an
>archive as is. When patches come round they are dropped into the same
>directory. The poor end user is then left to fetch them & apply them in
>succession :-)

Yep, kind of a drag. I know that the version of arc archived on uunet doesn't
even have all of my updates in the directory, it just has my original posting.

>For the australian archive I've been trying to avoid doing this. If a major
>local product is posted I contact the poster and organize a compressed
>tar file of what was posted. If the originator posts an update I get them
>to send to me (using ftp), for the archive, an updated posting of their work.
>By doing this I am managing to keep the archive tidy with out too much work by
>the originator and me much  while there is greater convenience for the any one
>that uses the archive.

I try to do this with the atari archive here as well, sort of. We do all the
work, and don't usually keep in contact with the poster. When a shar file is
posted to one of the atari program groups, I repackage it into an arc file,
usually. I decode all uuencoded postings, as well. (Don't need uuencode for
an ftp service, and our mail server automatically uuencodes files on the fly.)
Upgrades to source postings tend to be complete replacements, so the issue
of applying patches to archive files doesn't usually arise.

>Some notes are:

>	- This is not suitable for posters (sp?) who do not have ftp access

It can work fine if the poster mails cdiffs or somesuch. Just puts more load
on the archivers...

>	- It's probably ok for small archives (like oz) but not so usefull
>	  for large archives.

Hey, going thru this effort saves space, at least. And a lot of time for
people using the archive.

>	- The poster gets a little extra work
>	- The archiver may have a little less work :-)
uh... right.  }-)

>	- Who is responsible for postings that get taken over?

Taken over? Whoever did the takeover, presumably.
--
  -- Howard Chu @ University of Michigan
  one million data bits stored on a chip, one million bits per chip
	if one of those data bits happens to flip,
		one million data bits stored on the chip...