Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!think!rutgers!sri-spam!sri-unix!hplabs!felix!peregrine!mike From: mike@peregrine.UUCP (Mike Wexler) Newsgroups: net.news.newsite Subject: Re: new site Message-ID: <1186@peregrine.UUCP> Date: Fri, 31-Oct-86 14:47:02 EST Article-I.D.: peregrin.1186 Posted: Fri Oct 31 14:47:02 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 3-Nov-86 21:03:19 EST References: <104@mcf.UUCP> <843@gould9.UUCP> Reply-To: mike@peregrine.UUCP (Mike Wexler) Organization: Peregrine Systems, Inc, Irvine Ca Lines: 101 In article <843@gould9.UUCP> joel@gould9.UUCP (Joel West) writes: >Does 2.11 require the posting to net.news.newsite (or news.newsite?) >to give more meaningful headings? ... > Joel West MCI Mail: 282-8879 > Western Software Technology, POB 2733, Vista, CA 92083 > {cbosgd, ihnp4, pyramid, sdcsvax, ucla-cs} !gould9!joel > joel%gould9.uucp@NOSC.ARPA I think a progarm should be written(I may write it in my spare time if noone else has it written yet). That would ask for the information about a particular site and put it into a standard format for posting to net.news.newsite and net.news.config. This program would be used during the installation procedure and also when a site changed there configuration. It could send mail to the network map coordinator, post an article to either net.news.newsite or net.news.config (whichever is appropriate), and it could set up a local configuration file for machines that are not known to the outside world. There are many advantages to such a program. First, it would put the postings in a standard format that could be automatically processed, i.e. when a newsite or a configuration posting comes in it could automatically change the appropriate map files. Second, it would put the postings in a more usable form as suggested by Joel. Third, it would save time for the person setting up news. Following is a sample session of the proposed program. If you have any ideas please mail them to me and I will post a summary of them and possibly a modified sample session. In the following session questions the computers asks are prefacted by "Computer:", answers the user gives are prefixed by "User:", and comments and ideas of mine are prefixed by "Remark:". Computer: Is this a new installation? Remark: It might be able to figure this out itself. By checking to see if a file is there that it creates when in runs. User: yes Computer: What is the name of your site? Remark: This may be figured out the same way sitename is figured out by the rest of the news software. User: abcdefghijkvax Computer: Many sites may not be able to send mail to because it is longer then 6 characters long, would you like to change it? User: yes Computer: What is the name of your site? User: gatech Computer: That site name already exists. Please enter another name. Remark: To come up with an answer like this the user would have to have the pathalias database online. User: gtech Computer: What are the make and model of your computer? User: PDP 11/17 Computer: What operating system does it run? User: MVS/XA Computer: What is the name of your organization? User: Psychotic State, Psychiatry Department Computer: Who is the USENET administrator? User: Joe Cool Computer: What is the system administrators email address? User: gtech!joecool Computer: What is the system administrators phone number? User: (012) 345-6789 Computer: What is the system administrators mailing address? User: 1234 Main St, Little Town, BS 00000 Computer: At what latitude and longitude is your organization located? User: 01 23 45 N / 60 12 34 W Computer: Is there anything special that people should know about your site? User: no Computer: Whats sites do you exchange news with? User: abcvax, defvax, ghiprm Remark: the computer might check the pathalias database to see if it knows about these. Computer: What is the name of a site you exhanged mail with? User: abcvax Remark: The computer could check the pathalais database to see if this site is known. Computer: How frequently? User: DAILY Computer: Do you exchange mail with any other sites? User: No Computer: Segmentation Fault(core dumped) User: Huh? The results of this would be a newsite entry that looks like this #N gtech #S PDP 11/17, MVS/XA #O Psychotic State, Psychiatry Department #C Joe Cool #E gtech!joecool #T (012) 345-6789 #P 1234 Main t, Little Town, BS 00000 #L 01 23 45 N / 60 12 34 W #U abcvax, defvax, ghiprm #R # gtech abcvax(DAILY) This would then be posted to net.news.newsite and mailed to the appropriate network map coordinator. -- Mike Wexler (trwrb|scgvaxd)!felix!peregrine!mike (714)855-3923