Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!necntc!ames!ptsfa!hoptoad!gnu
From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Ways to deal with the additional load...
Message-ID: <3376@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Mon, 23-Nov-87 08:14:32 EST
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.3376
Posted: Mon Nov 23 08:14:32 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 26-Nov-87 00:12:35 EST
References: <3372@uunet.UU.NET> <1886@ho95e.ATT.COM>
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 43

wcs@ho95e.ATT.COM (Bill.Stewart) wrote:
> How have people handled the additional load?  I've had to expire
> articles much faster than before, mainly because my history file is
> limited to 1 megabyte (System V ulimit braindamage), though total disk
> volume has also been a problem.  Similarly, I've had rnews workload
> problems during the day (ho95e is an elderly 1MIPS machine which has
> real users on it); I hope CNews will help when I get it running.

I thought the ulimit braindamage was easily solved by making /etc/init
a little program that sets the ulimit to something sane and then exec's
the real init...but I don't believe in Missed'em V, except as implemented
by Guy Harris atop SunOS, so I've never had to try it.

C news definitely helps; I've been running an ancient version of C
"rnews" for months (with a 2.11 "vnews" and a 2.10.3 "inews" and expire,
and Bog knows what version of "rn"), and it's a serious win.

I am also expiring quicker than before (from 14 to 9 days), and my batching
scripts quit batching when the spool partition goes below 3MB free.
(Henry's C news batcher can do much better, cutting off an unresponsive
site while still getting the news out to everybody else, but in typical
C news fashion it changes the interface "just a little bit" so you can't
conveniently drop it in as a B news batcher replacement.  Worse, the
reason for the interface change is so Henry could write most of it as
a shell script.  I would make it meet the interface spec first and go
for the small-is-bootiful ideology second.  And I will, before I install
it here...)

One thing I did that cuts out a bunch of the load is to stop receiving
and forwarding comp.binaries.  I smile every time I see how many K show
up in the "top 25 news posters" lists but never appear on hoptoad...

A final technique which is partly implemented here is to run news feeds
on Telebit modems.  My feed to unisoft is on a Telebit link, and while
it only gets hundreds of chars/sec instead of the nominal 1200 (because
unisoft is incredibly overloaded and can't RECEIVE 1200 chars/sec),
it's a win.  When ptsfa figures out how to make Datakit send breaks and
work at 19200 baud, my incoming news will be on a Telebit too.  Let's
see, 2.4MB a day, that's about 35 minutes on the modem...
-- 
{pyramid,ptsfa,amdahl,sun,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu			  gnu@toad.com
Love your country but never trust its government.
		      -- from a hand-painted road sign in central Pennsylvania