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From: a3@rivm05.rivm.nl (Adri Verhoef)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: How C-news checkgroups should work, a proposition
Message-ID: <1991Mar25.195250.24700@rivm.nl>
Date: 25 Mar 91 19:52:50 GMT
Sender: news@rivm.nl
Organization: Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid & Milieuhygiene, Bilthoven,NL
Lines: 38
Originator: a3@rivm05

On account of a recent problem with the C-news checkgroups script,
I'm coming up with a proposition here.
A little background of the problem: it seems that new and old descriptions
of newsgroups are kept in the newsgroups file, after executing checkgroups.


How checkgroups should work, a proposition.
-------------------------------------------

1. Make a backup copy of the newsgroups file.
2. Fetch all valid top hierarchies (alt, bionet, bit, biz, comp, ...)
   from the checkgroups message, storing them in "top_hier".
3. Fetch all obsolete top hierarchies (!pubnet, ...)
   from the checkgroups message, storing them in "not_hier".
4. Delete all newsgroups that belong to one of the top hierarchies
   that were saved in "top_hier" or in "not_hier" from the newsgroups file.
5. Append all valid newsgroup descriptions from the checkgroups message
   to the newsgroups file.
6. Sort the newsgroups file.
7. Compare the newsgroups file and the active file. [Check groups]
===========================================

Afterthoughts.
--------------
a. File "localgroups" seems to be unneeded.
b. The newsgroups file could now contain "control", "general", "junk",
   - although this is not necessary - so that a seemingly real comparison
   between newsgroups file and active file can be performed.
c. The comparison between newsgroups file and active file
   needs to be worked out some more. [What about aliasing?]
===========================================

This looks real easy to implement.  (As they say: a one cent's whistle.)
Action "7" is the hardest part to program, but since that has been
done already, it only needs a little re-programming.
--
Adri Verhoef (a3@rivm.nl, Postmaster, NewsAdmin, Systems Programmer, SysAdmin)
National Institute for Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM).