Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert
From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: Sys File Strangeness
Summary: Problem explained, bug fixed.
Message-ID: <1990Sep28.132417.27785@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 28 Sep 90 13:24:17 GMT
References: <SPIKE.90Sep27120156@world.std.com>
   <1990Sep27.171833.16488@mp.cs.niu.edu> <SPIKE.90Sep27191913@world.std.com>
   <SPIKE.90Sep27192025@world.std.com> <1990Sep27.223150.7773@zoo.toronto.edu>
   <1990Sep28.031824.14060@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 67

In article <SPIKE.90Sep27120156@world.std.com> spike@world.std.com (Joe Ilacqua) writes:
>
>	Can anyone tell me why this line which used to work fine, no
>longer works...
>
>someone:alt.fan,alt.fandom,alt.folklore,alt.gambling,alt.security,\
>        alt.sex/all,!local::/usr/ucb/mail someone@somehost
>

  To this, I replied:

> Are you by any chance using nntplink, and if so, did you apply the
>PATCH.RELAYNEWS patches?  If so, that would explain your problem.

 Spike replied:

>	Bingo!  I'm not using the flags in add, I think I'll undo the
>patch...

 Since then some comments by henry@zoo.toronto.edu denying responsibility.

 Let's put this matter completely to rest.

 The nntplink sources contain a file PATCH.RELAYNEWS.  There purpose is to
introduce a new option into the sys file, and when this is used to change
the format of log file entries so that nntplink can read the log file to
determine which articles to transmit.  Unfortunately there was a bug in
those patches which interfered with gatewaying a news group to a mailing list.

 I reported this bug by email on Sept 5th, and received acknowledgment of its
receipt about a week or so later.  I don't know whether the nntplink mailing
list ever reported this, as I am not on that list (I decided against using
nntplink for unrelated reasons).  I have not seen the bug reported in this
news group.  I am therefore attaching a copy of my original bug report.

||To: alden@shape.mps.ohio-state.edu
||Subject: BUG in the file PATCH.RELAYNEWS in nntplink 2.0.3
||Date: Wed, 05 Sep 90 13:59:30 -0500
||From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu
||
|| There appears to be a bug in the C-NEWS patches supplied with nntplink.
||I have decided not to use nntplink for other reasons, but had applied the
||patches.
||
|| In the patches for 'transmit.c' there appears the following line:
||
||! 	else if (!sys->sy_flags&FLG_LINK)
||
||  I believe this should really be:
||
||! 	else if (!(sys->sy_flags&FLG_LINK))
||
||  The problem is that !sys->sy_flags&FLG_LINK evaluates to
||		      (!sys->sy_flags)&FLG_LINK
||	and the first operand must evaluate to 0 or 1, the second to 128,
||	so the expression always evaluates to 0 = FALSE.
||
|| -Neil Rickert
References: <SPIKE.90Sep27120156@world.std.com>
   <1990Sep27.171833.16488@mp.cs.niu.edu> <SPIKE.90Sep27191913@world.std.com>
   <SPIKE.90Sep27192025@world.std.com> <1990Sep27.223150.7773@zoo.toronto.edu>
   <1990Sep28.031824.14060@zoo.toronto.edu>
-- 
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115.                                  +1-815-753-6940