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From: jerry@olivey.olivetti.com (Jerry Aguirre)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: sendsys control message
Message-ID: <49412@olivea.atc.olivetti.com>
Date: 14 Sep 90 20:23:23 GMT
References: <1779@asuvax.asu.edu>
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Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, CA
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In article <1779@asuvax.asu.edu> system@asuvax.asu.edu (Marc Lesure) writes:
>
>How does one send the 'inews -c sendsys' to only specific sites and not 
>a complete distribution?
>
>Thanks

One can control where a sendsys, or other control message, will go by
controlling the newsgroup and distribution.  For example it is common
for a sys file entry to have:

	host:rec,world,soc,comp,...,talk,to.host:F:...

The to.host is a news group that you create locally.  By posting your
control message to "to.host" then it will execute locally and be queued
for transmission to "host".  Other entries will have "to.somethingelse"
so it won't be sent to them.  Hopefully your neighbor will not forward
"to.host" to anyone else.  This is very useful for checking up on what
your feed's sys file entry for you looks like.

A second alternative is to use a distribution.  For example in my area
we have a "ca" distribution for the state and a "ba" distribution for
the local area.  I could post a sendsys with a distribution of "ba" to
find out what my neighbors are doing without flooding the entire world.
I include the "ba" distribution in the entries for local sites but not
for feeds outside the area.

The ability to use selective transmission is one of the reasons to NOT
use "all" in the sys file.  At the very least "all" should ALL ways be
qualified.  For example:

	"host:all,!to,to.host,!local:..."

with possibly other restrictions if regional distributions are involved.

						Jerry Aguirre