Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watcgl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale
From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale)
Newsgroups: net.news.b
Subject: Re: Why are distributions mandatory in 2.10.2?
Message-ID: <465@watcgl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Nov-84 08:36:36 EST
Article-I.D.: watcgl.465
Posted: Fri Nov 16 08:36:36 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Nov-84 03:46:07 EST
References: <368@watcgl.UUCP> <77@daemon.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 40

> >At Waterloo, there are a number of local newsgroups associated with
> >courses with names like "cs488".  From their names, they appear to be
> >local groups, but in fact are explicitly distributed by the sys file
> >on each machine to whatever other machines share the group.  This scheme
> >worked fine under 2.10.1, but now we find that the 2.10.2 postnews
> >absolutely insists on assigning a distribution to every article
> >posted, and that this distribution must be one of the short list in
> >LIBDIR/distributions.
> 
> 	Firstly, postnews requires a Distribution: line before entering
> the editor, but not after.  Thus, you could set up a dummy distribution, 
> like "class" to respond to the "distribution" prompt, and then have your
> students simply remove the Distribution: header line.

I know this works; that's what the teaching assistants for the course
have been doing.  And I consider this unacceptable, and it is one of
the reasons I have not installed 2.10.2 on any of the other machines at
Waterloo.  Why should people have to explicitly remember to DELETE the
distribution information?  There should be some way of telling postnews
"leave out the distribution".  My real question was: the ability to
explicitly route newsgroups via the sys file seemed a very useful
feature of all previous versions of news; why should this now be broken?
What reason is there that all articles should now have a Distribution
header, even if the user doesn't wish to apply a non-default distribution?

> 	If there is no Distribution: header line, inews goes with the
> Newsgroups: line only to determine distribution.  If both header lines
> exist, they BOTH must match the sys file line to be sent to that site.
> Thus, alternatively, you could set up a distribution for all Waterloo
> machines and have your students post to "Newsgroup: cs488" and
> "Distribution: wat" or whatever, and it should work just fine.

Hmm.  Has this changed in 2.10.2?  If so, this would work, although it
would be slower ("cs448 is currently distributed immediately, via Ethernet,
to the other machines that receive it, while "wat" material is sent to the
central news machine which distributes via batching).  I know that with
2.10.1, the Distribution line completely replaced the Newsgroup line
for determining where articles were sent.

	Dave Martindale