Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!uwm.edu!wuarchive!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!anu-news!list From: kenw@NOAH.ARC.AB.CA (Ken Wallewein CDP) Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news Subject: Problems (sorry: challenges :-) merging NEWS data bases Message-ID: <6430*kenw@noah.arc.ab.ca> Date: 26 Feb 90 17:28:00 GMT Sender: ANU-NEWS Discussion Reply-To: Ken Wallewein CDP Lines: 34 We are running NEWS V5.8 on this system; it appears that V5.9+ cannot run on our VMS V4.7 due to reliance on sharable mail (is there a way around that?). In any case, I'm looking at merging our old kludged separate "Forum" NEWS V4.2-based facility (I had to make hard-coded name changes to keep the two data bases separate) with the ANU NEWS V5.8 setup. I plan to use CLASSes and ACLs to: a) Implement the FORUM command as NEWS/CLASS=FORUM b) Prevent the few user IDs with the identifier EXTERNAL from reading the FORUM class newsgroups. Is there an easy way to merge data bases, assuming that the newsgroups all different names? It would be nice if I could simply $ RENAME the appropriate directory structures to the new locations and ask NEWS to update its indices accordingly. The alternative appears to be to ADD FILE [FORUM...]*.ITM. Unfortunately, that would cause the messages to be ADDed out of sequence, unless I first ran a DCL procedure over the files and leadiing-zero-filled all the .ITM file name/numbers. And of course, those files would then be inaccessible from FORUM during the transition period, making a fallback more difficult. When I use the command NEWS/CLASS=FORUM/SCAN, the scan does not appear to be restricted to the specified class. It there a way to correct this? Finally, are there changes in NEWS V5.9c or its immediate successor that would significantly alleviate or impact these 'challenges', making it worthwhile to wait until we have upgraded VMS to V5.3+? /kenw Ken Wallewein A L B E R T A kenw@noah.arc.ab.ca R E S E A R C H (403)297-2660 C O U N C I L