Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!lethe!druid!darcy
From: darcy@druid.uucp (D'Arcy J.M. Cain)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: C News newgroup handling
Message-ID: <1990Oct30.043029.15164@druid.uucp>
Date: 30 Oct 90 04:30:29 GMT
References: <1990Oct26.173215.17486@druid.uucp>
Organization: D'Arcy Cain Consulting, West Hill, Ontario
Lines: 166

In article <1990Oct26.173215.17486@druid.uucp> I wrote:
>I have been trying to figure out some way to do the following;  Every
>new/rmgroup message is mailed to user usenet so that replies get sent to
>an alias for a process which does the actual newgroup or rmgroup.  That
>way I just read my mail and when I see a valid control message I just press
>'r' to reply with the text included.  Bogus messages just get a 'd' and
>don't get processed.  I don't know when I will get a chance to do this but
>any suggestions in the mean time are welcome.

Well I finished this.  What happens is that I cause every newgroup and
rmgroup to be mailed to NEWSMASTER.  I then save any approved messages
to a folder.  I use 'g' as a folder name because I'm lazy.  There is a
script that reads a file and looks for lines that start with Control
and newgroups or rmgroups as necessary.  The last piece is the cron
entry to run the second script on the folder.   Local tests work fine.
I'm just waiting for some real world examples to try out.  (Where's all
those newgroup/rmgroup wars when you need them.)

The two scripts consist of a total of ~120 lines mostly stolen from
other parts of C News.  I think it is small enough to post here so
here it is.  Note that this is for C News.  Perhaps someone familiar
with B News can modify it and repost if necessary.


The first file replaces both newgroup and rmgroup in $NEWSBIN/ctl

------------------------ start of newgroup/rmgroup ---------------
#! /bin/sh
# rmgroup group - snuff group
# newgroup group flag - create group (4-field version: B-2.10.3+ compatible)
#	subject to our sys file group pattern
# This program checks to see if there is an approved header and if so simply
# sends the message as mail to NEWSMASTER.

# =()<. ${NEWSCONFIG-@<NEWSCONFIG>@}>()=
. ${NEWSCONFIG-/usr/lib/news/bin/config}
export NEWSCTL NEWSBIN NEWSARTS
PATH=$NEWSCTL/bin:$NEWSBIN/relay:$NEWSBIN:$NEWSPATH export PATH
umask $NEWSUMASK

tmp=/tmp/ng$$

trap "rm -f $tmp.1 $tmp.2; exit 0" 0
cat > $tmp.1
canonhdr < $tmp.1> $tmp.2

# unapproved ctl msg? then quit
egrep '^Approved:' $tmp.2 >/dev/null || { rm -f $tmp.1 $tmp.2; exit 0; }

mailx -s "$0 requested" $NEWSMASTER < $tmp
exit 0
------------------------ end of newgroup/rmgroup -------------------------

The next file is the script that does the actual newgroup or rmgroup
as the case may be.  It doesn't matter where you put it as it is only
ever called by cron and you have to put an explicit path anyway.

----------------------- start -f do.new.rm ------------------------
#! /bin/sh
# newgroup group flag - create group (4-field version: B-2.10.3+ compatible)
#	subject to our sys file group pattern

# =()<. ${NEWSCONFIG-@<NEWSCONFIG>@}>()=
. ${NEWSCONFIG-/usr/lib/news/bin/config}
export NEWSCTL NEWSBIN NEWSARTS
PATH=$NEWSCTL/bin:$NEWSBIN/relay:$NEWSBIN:$NEWSPATH ; export PATH # include mkpdir
umask $NEWSUMASK

mail=/tmp/mail$$
tmp=/usr/tmp/ng$$

if [ ! -r $1 ]
then
	exit 0
fi

trap "rm -f $mail $tmp; exit 0" 0
mv $1 $tmp

grep '^Control: ' $tmp | while read ctl_message
do
	set $ctl_message
	greppat="^`echo $3 | sed 's/\./\\\\./g' ` "

	case $2 in 
	newgroup)
		if grep -s "$greppat" $NEWSCTL/active >/dev/null; then
			echo "Newsgroup $3 already exists" >> $mail
			chamod "$3" "$4" 		# change moderated flag if needed
		else
			me="`newshostname`"
			gngppat=`awk -f $NEWSBIN/relay/canonsys.awk $NEWSCTL/sys |
				egrep "^($me|ME):" |
				awk -F: '
				{
					fields = split($2, field2, "/")	# split ngs/dists
					print field2[1]			# print only ngs
					exit
				}' `

			if gngp -a "$gngppat" >/dev/null <<!
			$3
!
			then			# no group in active, but sys file likes it: make it
				case "$4" in
				moderated)	flag=m ;;
				*)		flag=y ;;
				esac
				echo "$3 0000000000 0000000001 $flag" >>$NEWSCTL/active
				(echo "$3 `getdate now` $NEWSMASTER" >>$NEWSCTL/active.times)  # rn hook
				# make the directory since rn will bitch if it's missing
				mkpdir $NEWSARTS/`echo $3 | tr . / `
				echo "newsgroup $3 was created." >> $mail
			fi
		fi
		;;

	rmgroup)
		already="`sed 's/[ 	].*//' $NEWSCTL/active | fgrep -x \"$3\"`"
		if test " $already" = " "
		then
			echo "$0: $3 appears not to exist" >> $mail
		else
			lock="$NEWSCTL/LOCK"
			ltemp="$NEWSCTL/L.$$"
			echo $$ >$ltemp
			while true
			do
				if newslock $ltemp $lock
				then
					trap "rm -f $ltemp $lock ; exit 0" 0 1 2 15
					break
				fi
				echo 'news system locked, waiting...'
				sleep 5
			done

			cd $NEWSCTL

			awk "\$1 != \"$3\"" active >active.tmp
			mv active active.old && mv active.tmp active
			chmod 664 active*
			chown news active*

			echo "newsgroup $3 was removed.  You may wish to rmdir" >> $mail
			echo "$NEWSARTS/`echo "$3" | sed 's;\.;/;g'` at some point." >> $mail
		fi
		;;
	esac
	echo >> $mail
done

mailx -s "Newgroup/rmgroup activity report" $NEWSMASTER < $mail
-------------------------- end of do.new.rm -----------------------------

Now just put a cron entry like the following.  I can't think of any way
of using anything except root cron since it needs to access files of
more than one user, news and whoever usenet is.

28 0,8,16 * * * /usr/lib/newsbin/do.new.rm /usr/darcy/Mail/g

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain (darcy@druid)     |
D'Arcy Cain Consulting             |   I support gun control.
West Hill, Ontario, Canada         |   Let's start with the government!
+ 416 281 6094                     |