Xref: utzoo comp.sys.apollo:7775 news.software.b:6760
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caen!stealth
From: stealth@engin.umich.edu (Mike Pelletier)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo,news.software.b
Subject: Re: Rn locks active file on Apollos
Keywords: postnews, active locked
Message-ID: <1991Jan31.195615.13448@engin.umich.edu>
Date: 31 Jan 91 19:56:15 GMT
References: <168@numenor.gtephx.UUCP>
Sender: news@engin.umich.edu (CAEN Netnews)
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor
Lines: 26

In article <168@numenor.gtephx.UUCP> yountm@gtephx.UUCP (Marvin Yount) writes:
>I'm trying to get Rn set up on our Apollo site.  I've got it running
>pretty well (up to patch 45), but we have noticed a situation regarding
>the locking of the active file.  When someone is running Rn, other people
>can use Rn or readnews to read, but Rn is locking everyone out of posting
>news (at least via postnews).  Our news system is Bnews 2.11, recently
>rebuilt under SR10.2 and sys5).  Has anyone else run into this active file
>locking situation and know of a solution to it?

Here at the University of Michigan, we have a very similar environment --
about 500 apollos on various rings, and had the identical problem.
Only processes running on the same node as the locking process will be
able to access the file.

The solution is to forget completely about the Apollo //* filesystem, and
install C-news and NNTP on an individual Apollo node, and use rn with NNTP
to access the articles.  Since all the nntp daemon processes will be
on the same node, they'll be able to interact with the files normally.
We left the Apollos completely, and put news up on a DEC, but it should
run without inordinate difficulty on an Apollo.

-- 
	Mike Pelletier - Usenet News Admin & Programmer
"Wind, waves, etc. are breakdowns in the face of the commitment to getting
 from here to there.  But they are the conditions for sailing -- not
 something to be gotten rid of, but something to be danced with."