Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!jtsv16!gerry
From: gerry@jts.com (G. Roderick Singleton )
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Question about pathalias output.
Message-ID: <1990Aug30.021655.17835@jts.com>
Date: 30 Aug 90 02:16:55 GMT
References: <344@dynasys.UUCP> <1990Aug28.195720.10793@motcad.portal.com>
Organization: JTS Computer Systems Ltd.
Lines: 60

In article <1990Aug28.195720.10793@motcad.portal.com> jtc@motcad.portal.com (J.T. Conklin) writes:
}In article <344@dynasys.UUCP> jessea@dynasys.UUCP (Jesse W. Asher) writes:
}>I recently got connected to a well connected site and I'm having problems
}>with pathalias.  I have other sites that are connected to the outside
}>USENET world.  Yet, when I run pathalias, ALL mail goes out through this
}>well connected site - even though the cost is much higher to connect to
}>this site than my other sites.  The cost for connecting to these other sites
}>is 220 (direct+fast), but the cost to the other site is 500.  Why does
}>pathalias set up the database to route through this site even though the 
}>cost is higher?
}
}Because pathalias computes routes based on the end-to-end costs of
}a route.  Pathalias is routing through the well connected site, as
}its costs to the rest of the known world are less than your other
}connections.
}

TRUE!

}>How can I get it to stop this behavior?
}
}Declare the cost to this site obscenely high.
}

That might work but using pathalias' ability to compute first hop costs
might be a better bet. i.e. try pathalias -f ...
Here're the appropriate lines from the manpage:

	 -f    First hop cost: the printed cost is the  cost  to  the
		   first relay in a path, instead of the cost of the path
		   itself; implies (and overrides) the -c option.

}>Also, I would
}>like pathalias to look at the total cost from this site to the end site
}>instead of looking at just the connection to the next system.  Can I do
}>this?
}
}This is what its doing.

He's right and you can't have it both ways (see manpage excerpt
above).  You'll have to decide which is more important.

}
}>Here is how I make my paths file:
}> [script ommited]
}>I take all the maps, cat them into one big file, and run pathalias on it.
}>Am I doing something wrong here?
}
}Nothing wrong, but I don't find it necessary to cat everything into one 
}file.  I'd just run something like ``pathalias u.* d.* local.*'' and let
}shell wildcarding expand the map filenames into command line arguments
}for pathalias.
}
}	--jtc

ger
-- 
--
G. Roderick Singleton, System and Network Administrator, JTS Computers 
	{uunet | geac | torsqnt}!gerry@jtsv16.jts.com