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From: gih900@SAO.ANU.OZ.AU (Geoff Huston)
Newsgroups: news.software.anu-news
Subject: RE: Problems (sorry: challenges :-) merging NEWS data bases
Message-ID: <9002270140.AA19505@anu.anu.OZ.AU>
Date: 27 Feb 90 17:40:30 GMT
Sender: ANU-NEWS Discussion <ANU-NEWS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Reply-To: Geoff Huston <gih900@SAO.ANU.OZ.AU>
Lines: 50
Posted-Date: Tue, 27 Feb 90 12:40:30 EST


  >  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?).
     
The stuff will compile and will link with a warning, but will automatically use
 a
LIB$SPAWN call for mail - so yes, V5.9 should run on VMS V4.7 ('though I haven't
 tried
it!)
     
  >  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.
     
  no - either write an application to merge the two databases, or go around the
 long way
  with a large ADD command.
     
  >  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?
     
in theory yes, but I implemented scan to be as fast as possible in execution,
 and hence
do not examine class attributes of newsgroups. It can be added, but it will
 therefore
take more time.
     
  >  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+?
     
None are planned at this stage (unless someone sends me the code :-)  )
     
Geoff Huston