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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-unix!hplabs!hplabsc!taylor
From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: MAJOR bug in inews 2.11
Message-ID: <1252@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Feb-87 20:22:55 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.1252
Posted: Sat Feb  7 20:22:55 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 9-Feb-87 02:33:03 EST
Reply-To: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (Dave Taylor)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Labs, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 64
Summary: the '-M' flag & Path: are *not* friends...

Now that I've bashed my head into the wall for the past four hours
trying to track this one down, it seems that the "-M" flag in the
latest version of inews (2.11) is semi-worthless due to a bug.

Specifically, if I hand it a "from" line that is in uucp notation
rather than internet (e.g. hplabs!taylor instead of taylor@hplabs)
it will ignore the '-M' and make the From: be the person invoking
inews instead.  

This is really a problem!!  Almost all of the postings I get for
both mod.comp-soc and mod.conferences is from someone who used
uucp to get mail to me, rather than the internet.  Soooo....

The documentation of this bug is as follows:

I submitted, via "inews -M -h -F '<reference>' < file" the following
article:

  From: munnari!runx.oz!ronn (Ron Newton)
  Subject: Re: Shareware demise, and the evolution of computer users...
  Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
  Sender: taylor@hplabs
  Distribution: hpl
  Approved: taylor@hplabs

	[message body]

It appeared in the group as:

  From: taylor@hplabsc.HP.COM (Dave Taylor)
  Subject: Re: Shareware demise, and the evolution of computer users...
  Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
  Sender: taylor@hplabs
  Distribution: hpl
  Approved: taylor@hplabs

	[message body]

BUT, when I rewrote the From: line and resubmitted it using the
*exact same inews invokation*:

  From: ronn%runx.oz@munnari (really munnari!runx.oz!ronn -- Ron Newton)
  Subject: Re: Shareware demise, and the evolution of computer users...
  Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
  Sender: taylor@hplabs
  Distribution: hpl
  Approved: taylor@hplabs

it worked as I wanted.  You can go into 'mod.comp-soc' to see how this
one turned out.

Now it might be that this is a deliberate attempt to force people to
use domain-style addressing, but as a moderator with only limited time
to spend on reformatting information from users to be posted, I think
that we're being a bit overly direct.  I'm real close to hacking the
test (presumably there is one) out of inews altogether - after all, if
*I*, as the *moderator* of the group, submit something, then it should
be accepted REGARDLESS OF ADDRESS FORMAT!

If nothing else *** at least document the damn quirk!! ***

	Very miffed, and having wasted a few hours of a Saturday,

					-- Dave Taylor