1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
|
<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>Leafnode FAQ</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="article"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="idm46355473145888"></a>Leafnode FAQ</h2></div><div><div class="author"><h3 class="author"><span class="honorific">Dr</span>. <span class="firstname">Cornelius</span> <span class="surname">Krasel</span></h3></div></div><div><div class="author"><h3 class="author"><span class="firstname">Matthias</span> <span class="surname">Andree</span></h3></div></div><div><p class="copyright">Copyright 2002 Cornelius Krasel</p></div><div><p class="copyright">Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2021 Matthias Andree</p></div></div><hr></div><div class="toc"><p><b>Table of Contents</b></p><dl class="toc"><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="#FAQ">Leafnode frequently asked questions, with answers.</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="#idm46355476443120">Installation-related problems, including relocations</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="#idm46355476842608">Configuration problems</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="#idm46355476804016">Problems at run time</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="#idm46355472063792">Problems with particular newsreaders</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="#backtrace">Obtaining a stack backtrace</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="#idm46355472035120">From a core file.</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="#idm46355472029456">Running a program under gdb supervision.</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="#idm46355472017328">From a running/hanging leafnode
program.</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="#redhat-xinetd">Red Hat and the inetd vs. xinetd issue.</a></span></dt></dl></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="FAQ"></a>Leafnode frequently asked questions, with answers.</h2></div></div></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="idm46355476443120"></a>Installation-related problems, including relocations</h3></div></div></div><div class="qandaset"><a name="idm46355476442608"></a><dl><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355476442224">Compiling causes a message
'SA_RESETHAND undeclared'!</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355476440512">I cannot compile leafnode on Linux!</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355476714448">Where/how do I get the source RPM? I
want to modify it.</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355476421136">How do I copy/move the spool?</a></dt></dl><table border="0" style="width: 100%;"><colgroup><col align="left" width="1%"><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355476442224"></a><a name="idm46355476441968"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Compiling causes a message
'SA_RESETHAND undeclared'!</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>This means that your operating system is too old and
lacks this symbol which is required by POSIX.
Please update your operating system. </p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355476440512"></a><a name="idm46355476717408"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>I cannot compile leafnode on Linux!</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Another common reason for the build to
fail is that Leafnode depends on some
system-specific information which is usually
included in the sources of the kernel.</p><p>Unfortunately, some Linux distribution do
not install kernel sources by default; therefore,
compilation of Leafnode (and most other programs as
well) will fail. The obvious solution is to install
the kernel sources. On
Linux, if the kernel sources are installed in
<code class="filename">/usr/src/linux-a.b.cc</code> (with a.b.cc being the version
number of your kernel), create a symlink to
<code class="filename">/usr/src/linux</code>.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355476714448"></a><a name="idm46355476714192"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Where/how do I get the source RPM? I
want to modify it.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>You can generate it yourself from the
source tarball (which contains the necessary
<code class="filename">.spec</code> file. Just
type:
<strong class="userinput"><code>rpmbuild -ts leafnode-1.11.5.tar.bz2</code></strong> - of
course, you will have to adjust the version
shown here. For RPM 3.x and older, type this instead:
<strong class="userinput"><code>rpm -ts leafnode-1.11.5.tar.bz2</code></strong>
</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355476421136"></a><a name="idm46355476420880"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>How do I copy/move the spool?</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>There are two important requirements to heed:</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>You must copy hard links as hard links. There are three supported methods to achieve that. In each of the following examples, replace the source and DEST directories:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>On POSIX compliant systems, use <strong class="userinput"><code>mkdir DEST && sudo pax -r -w -p e -H /var/spool/news/ DEST</code></strong></p></li><li class="listitem"><p>If rsync is installed, use (note the trailing slash!), use <strong class="userinput"><code>rsync -aH /var/spool/news/ DEST</code></strong></p></li><li class="listitem"><p>If GNU cp is installed (it's sometimes called gcp), use <strong class="userinput"><code>cp -a /var/spool/news/ DEST</code></strong></p></li></ul></div><p>If you fail to do this, texpire may expire articles too early. You can repair broken hard links with <strong class="userinput"><code>texpire -r</code></strong>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>You must update the hashed message.id/nnn/ links if you are running leafnode from the new location. Unless the new spool directory has the same name as the old one (if, for instance, moving to a new computer), run <strong class="userinput"><code>texpire -r</code></strong> before any other leafnode program. Leafnode-1's spool layout unfortunately depends on the name of the spool directory, and when that changes, files may have to be moved between the message.id/nnn/ directories, and <strong class="userinput"><code>texpire -r</code></strong> does just that - and it also repairs hard links.</p><p>If you fail to do this, leafnode may not find articles in its spool.</p></li></ol></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="idm46355476842608"></a>Configuration problems</h3></div></div></div><div class="qandaset"><a name="idm46355476842064"></a><dl><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355476841536">Leafnode refuses to start and tells
things about my hostname!</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355476838784">Does leafnode support local
newsgroups?</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#nntpds">How do I run leafnode as NNTP+SSL
server?</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#nntps">How do I use fetchnews with NNTP/SSL
servers, such as
nntp.sourceforge.net?</a></dt></dl><table border="0" style="width: 100%;"><colgroup><col align="left" width="1%"><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355476841536"></a><a name="idm46355476841408"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Leafnode refuses to start and tells
things about my hostname!</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>There is a separate documentation file dedicated
to this issue, how to obtain a hostname, and how to tell
leafnode about it. Please see
<code class="filename">README-FQDN</code> or
<code class="filename">README-FQDN.html</code> for details.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355476838784"></a><a name="idm46355476838656"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Does leafnode support local
newsgroups?</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Leafnode 1.x does not support local newsgroups.
Leafnode 2.x will do that.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="nntpds"></a><a name="idm46355476836864"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>How do I run leafnode as NNTP+SSL
server?</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Wrap leafnode with an SSL wrapper:</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>
Obtain <a class="ulink" href="http://stunnel.mirt.net" target="_top">stunnel
version 3</a>
and install it.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Create a certificate and
save it to
<code class="filename">/etc/leafnode/stunnel.pem</code>, see
the stunnel documentation.
Implications such as whether to
use signed certificates are beyond the
scope of this document.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Add a configuration to your
inetd.conf or xinetd.conf as described in the
<code class="filename">INSTALL</code> document; but instead of
<strong class="userinput"><code>/usr/local/sbin/leafnode</code></strong>,
you'll type</p><p>
<strong class="userinput"><code>/usr/local/sbin/stunnel -f -p
/etc/leafnode/stunnel.pem -l
/usr/local/sbin/leafnode.</code></strong></p></li></ol></div></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="nntps"></a><a name="idm46355476814240"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>How do I use fetchnews with NNTP/SSL
servers, such as
<code class="filename">nntp.sourceforge.net</code>?</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Warning: SourceForge does not
currently support the
<span class="command"><strong>HEAD</strong></span>,
<span class="command"><strong>STAT</strong></span> and
<span class="command"><strong>BODY</strong></span> commands, so
leafnode-1 is totally out of the play for
now. leafnode-2 will work for lurking, but
will likely be unable to post. Sourceforge
are aware that we need these commands and
will add them at a later time.</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>
Obtain <a class="ulink" href="http://stunnel.mirt.net" target="_top">stunnel
version 3</a>
and install it.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Arrange for stunnel to be started at
system boot time, try:</p><p><strong class="userinput"><code>/usr/sbin/stunnel -c -d
127.0.0.1:563 -r
nntp.sourceforge.net:563</code></strong></p><p>Add</p><pre class="programlisting">server = localhost
port = 563
username = YOUR_SF_LOGIN
password = TOP_SECRET
</pre><p>to your
<code class="filename">/etc/leafnode/config</code>.
</p></li></ol></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="idm46355476804016"></a>Problems at run time</h3></div></div></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="idm46355476803472"></a>leafnode (the NNTP server)</h4></div></div></div><div class="qandaset"><a name="idm46355476802912"></a><dl><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355476802384">I cannot post, leafnode tells me the
Message-ID is invalid.</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355476799008">I cannot connect to my newsserver.</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355472111600">Remote users cannot connect to leafnode.</a></dt></dl><table border="0" style="width: 100%;"><colgroup><col align="left" width="1%"><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355476802384"></a><a name="idm46355476802256"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>I cannot post, leafnode tells me the
Message-ID is invalid.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Netscape Communicator, Mozilla and derived
products (Beonex) will by default generate the Message-ID
from the domain part of your E-Mail address. However, if
your address is that of a big freemailer site (hotmail.com,
yahoo.com, gmx.de), this will lead to invalid Message-IDs.</p><p>To work around this, go to the <span class="command"><strong>Mail &
Newsgroups</strong></span> settings and enclose your E-Mail
addresses into double quote marks, like
this:<strong class="userinput"><code>"matthias.andree@gmx.de"</code></strong>This
will prevent your Netscape-based newsreader from generating
the invalid Message-ID and leave the generation to leafnode.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355476799008"></a><a name="idm46355476798752"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>I cannot connect to my newsserver.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>You may not have configured <span class="application">inetd</span> or
<span class="application">xinetd</span> properly,
or the corresponding super server is not running. Please review
the installation instructions. <a class="link" href="#redhat-xinetd" title="Red Hat and the inetd vs. xinetd issue.">See below for
information specific to Red Hat.</a></p><p>
To test the setup, try: <strong class="userinput"><code>telnet localhost
119</code></strong>. Leafnode should then
reply with (on one line):
</p><pre class="screen">200 Leafnode NNTP Daemon, version 1.9.27.rel running at merlin.emma.line.org
(my fqdn: merlin.emma.line.org)</pre><p>
</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472111600"></a><a name="idm46355472111344"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Remote users cannot connect to leafnode.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>You are connecting from outside the same
networks that your leafnode
server is in. Leafnode by default refuses connections from
outside your
LAN to prevent your leafnode server from abuse should you forget to
configure tcpd or make a mistake when writing your
<code class="filename">hosts.allow</code> or
<code class="filename">hosts.deny</code> files.
Please see <code class="filename">/etc/leafnode/config.example</code> for the
<em class="parameter"><code>allowstrangers</code></em> option and how to
configure this option, and its requirements.
YOU are responsible for the abuse of your
server if this option is enabled, so only
give access to people with static IP whom
you trust.</p><p>If the clients are on
dynamic IP, please use other methods of
access instead, for instance SSH tunnels
(which are also available on Windows, before
you ask).</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="idm46355472107184"></a>fetchnews</h4></div></div></div><div class="qandaset"><a name="idm46355472106672"></a><dl><dt>1. <a href="#idm46355472106416">Fetchnews does not fetch any articles.</a></dt><dt>2. <a href="#idm46355472100896">Fetchnews has problems
retrieving new newsgroups.</a></dt><dt>3. <a href="#idm46355472095088">Since the update, fetchnews does
not post my new articles!</a></dt><dt>4. <a href="#idm46355472092448">While fetchnews is running, my modem hangs up.</a></dt><dt>5. <a href="#idm46355472089648">How can I run fetchnews as regular user (not
root)?</a></dt><dt>6. <a href="#idm46355472082336">I have unsubscribed from a newsgroup, but
fetchnews still pulls articles for that group.</a></dt><dt>7. <a href="#idm46355472077856">How do I stop fetchnews from unsubscribing from
newsgroups?</a></dt><dt>8. <a href="#idm46355472074496">fetchnews is slow, how do I
speed it up?</a></dt><dt>9. <a href="#idm46355472072400">fetchnews keeps downloading the full newsgroup list
every time it runs</a></dt></dl><table border="0" style="width: 100%;"><colgroup><col align="left" width="1%"><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472106416"></a><a name="idm46355472106160"></a><p><b>1.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Fetchnews does not fetch any articles.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>There are several reasons why this may
be the case:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>You did not read any pseudo articles with
your news reader. Subscribe to some groups,
enter them and read the leafnode placeholder
article.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Your groupinfo file may be corrupt.
Run <strong class="userinput"><code>fetchnews
-f</code></strong>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><code class="filename">/var/spool/news</code> may have
wrong permissions.
<code class="filename">/var/spool/news</code> and all its
subdirectories should be owned by user and
group news and have permissions drwxrwsr-x
(02755).</p></li></ul></div></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472100896"></a><a name="idm46355472100640"></a><p><b>2.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Fetchnews has problems
retrieving new newsgroups.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Maybe your upstream server supports neither the
<span class="command"><strong>XGTITLE news.group.name</strong></span> nor the
<span class="command"><strong>LIST NEWSGROUPS news.group.name</strong></span>
command.</p><p>In this case, add <strong class="userinput"><code>nodesc =
1</code></strong> to the
server entry in <code class="filename">/etc/leafnode/config</code>,
as described in the
<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">leafnode</span>(8)</span>
manual page and the
<code class="filename">/etc/leafnode/config.example</code> file.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472095088"></a><a name="idm46355472094960"></a><p><b>3.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Since the update, fetchnews does
not post my new articles!</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>You have probably mixed old and new
binaries. Check your
<code class="filename">inetd.conf</code> or
<code class="filename">xinetd.conf</code> configuration
if they really point to the new binary.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472092448"></a><a name="idm46355472092192"></a><p><b>4.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>While fetchnews is running, my modem hangs up.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
An article that causes the interruption may contain
three plus signs in a row (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">+++</span>”</span>), which
many modems interpret as the beginning of a command.
You can change or disable this <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">escape</span>”</span>
sequence. Consult your modem's manual, register S2 is
a common place to configure this.
</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472089648"></a><a name="idm46355472089520"></a><p><b>5.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>How can I run fetchnews as regular user (not
root)?</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>For security reasons, this is not possible.</p><p>However, there is a tool named <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">sudo</span>”</span>
that allows a regular, unprivileged user to
impersonate another user, and this can be used to
enable a regular user to run fetchnews.</p><p><span class="quote">“<span class="quote">sudo</span>”</span> is available from
<a class="ulink" href="http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/" target="_top">http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/</a>.</p><p>If <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">sudo</span>”</span> is installed on your
system, then run
<strong class="userinput"><code>visudo</code></strong> as root and
add this line:
</p><pre class="programlisting">username ALL = (news) NOPASSWD: /path/to/fetchnews</pre><p>
Remember to replace
<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">username</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">/path/to/</span>”</span> with the
user's login and the proper path to
fetchnews.</p><p>Now, the user who has been enabled access to fetchnews can
just type <strong class="userinput"><code>sudo -u news
/path/to/fetchnews</code></strong>
to run fetchnews.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472082336"></a><a name="idm46355472082080"></a><p><b>6.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>I have unsubscribed from a newsgroup, but
fetchnews still pulls articles for that group.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Your news reader talks to leafnode via the NNTP
protocol. This protocol provides no means for Leafnode to
determine which newsgroups you are actually subscribe.
Therefore, Leafnode assumes that a newsgroup that is not
read for a certain time (which can be configured with the
<em class="parameter"><code>timeout_long</code></em> parameter) is unsubscribed
and will only stop retrieving articles in it after this
time.</p><p>If you are impatient and want to stop retrieving
articles from that group immediately, delete the
corresponding file in the
<code class="filename">/var/spool/news/interesting.groups/</code>
directory. The articles that are already in your spool are
still subject to the regular <span class="command"><strong>texpire</strong></span>
schedule, however.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472077856"></a><a name="idm46355472077728"></a><p><b>7.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>How do I stop fetchnews from unsubscribing from
newsgroups?</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Make sure that your newsreader issues
GROUP or LIST ACTIVE commands for each of
the groups it is subscribed to when checking
for new news, so that leafnode can actually
see which groups are interesting. For
instance, a newsreader configured to read
the whole active file with a LIST command
may lose subscriptions for low-traffic
groups. <a class="link" href="#gnus" title="Q:">See also the Gnus
FAQ below.</a></p><p>As a last resort, change your cron job or
ip-up script to run
<strong class="userinput"><code>fetchnews -n</code></strong> rather than just
<strong class="userinput"><code>fetchnews</code></strong>.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472074496"></a><a name="idm46355472074368"></a><p><b>8.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>fetchnews is slow, how do I
speed it up?</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>If you are using filters, try the
article_despite_filter option (introduced in
leafnode v1.9.33).</p><p>If your upstream server does not support
XOVER, try using as few of the
maxage, maxlines, maxbytes, minlines,
maxcrosspost options as possible.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472072400"></a><a name="idm46355472072272"></a><p><b>9.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>fetchnews keeps downloading the full newsgroup list
every time it runs</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Watch the fetchnews output for error messages, if you see a
message such as <code class="computeroutput">Reading newsgroups descriptions
failed: 501 bad command usage.</code> then try adding
<strong class="userinput"><code>nodesc = 1</code></strong> blow the
server=news.example.org line of the server that showed this error.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="idm46355472068992"></a>texpire</h4></div></div></div><div class="qandaset"><a name="idm46355472068480"></a><dl><dt>1. <a href="#idm46355472068224">Texpire does not expire
articles.</a></dt><dt>2. <a href="#idm46355472065584">Texpire message.id counts do
not match the sum of the group counts!</a></dt></dl><table border="0" style="width: 100%;"><colgroup><col align="left" width="1%"><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472068224"></a><a name="idm46355472068096"></a><p><b>1.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Texpire does not expire
articles.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>The backup software
that you are using may not reset the atime after reading a
file. Check if you can reconfigure it to reset the
<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">atime</span>”</span>.</p><p>As a workaround, run
<strong class="userinput"><code>texpire -f</code></strong>. This will expire articles
somewhat earlier because expiry is then determined from the
time the file was last modified, rather than when it was last
accessed.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472065584"></a><a name="idm46355472065456"></a><p><b>2.</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Texpire message.id counts do
not match the sum of the group counts!</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>This may happen if texpire has been
interrupted previously, crashed, some other
application touched the spool or the spool is corrupt.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="idm46355472063792"></a>Problems with particular newsreaders</h3></div></div></div><div class="qandaset"><a name="idm46355472063280"></a><dl><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355472062784">leafnode loses subscriptions of low-traffic
groups with Gnus.</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355472059168">leafnode loses subscriptions of low-traffic
groups with slrn.</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355472056304">When searching news with Netscape, I only get back
“unknown command”.</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355472052768">Outlook Express locks up.</a></dt><dt>Q: <a href="#idm46355472049104">Tin complains about a missing file
/var/lib/news/active.</a></dt></dl><table border="0" style="width: 100%;"><colgroup><col align="left" width="1%"><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472062784"></a><a name="gnus"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>leafnode loses subscriptions of low-traffic
groups with Gnus.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Check the setting of gnus-read-active-file (you
can use customize-variable to do that), it should be
<strong class="userinput"><code>'some</code></strong> or
<strong class="userinput"><code>nil</code></strong>.
</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472059168"></a><a name="slrn"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>leafnode loses subscriptions of low-traffic
groups with slrn.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Check the setting of read_active, it should be
<strong class="userinput"><code>0</code></strong> (the default).
</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472056304"></a><a name="idm46355472056048"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>When searching news with Netscape, I only get back
<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">unknown command</span>”</span>.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
To search news, older versions of Netscape needed a
news server which supports the XPAT command.
Leafnode-1 does not. If you want to use Netscape, you
have to upgrade to version 4.5 and press the
<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">options</span>”</span> button which appears in the
<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">search
messages</span>”</span> window. In the box which appears you have
to select <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">on your local system</span>”</span>.
</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472052768"></a><a name="idm46355472052512"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Outlook Express locks up.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
This can be caused by a corrupted <code class="filename">inbox</code>
file in Outlook Express. It is said to happen during the
initial install of Internet Explorer. To fix this problem,
go to <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Add/Remove Programs</span>”</span>, choose
<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Internet Explorer</span>”</span>, then <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Repair
installation.</span>”</span>
</p><p>Thanks to Jim Gifford who talked to Microsoft to
find this solution.</p></td></tr><tr class="question"><td align="left" valign="top"><a name="idm46355472049104"></a><a name="idm46355472048848"></a><p><b>Q:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>Tin complains about a missing file
<code class="filename">/var/lib/news/active</code>.</p></td></tr><tr class="answer"><td align="left" valign="top"><p><b>A:</b></p></td><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
Either you have started the wrong version of tin (the one
which tries to read news directly from the spool) or your
groupinfo file is corrupt.
</p><p>
In the first case, simply invoke tin with
the -r flag: <strong class="userinput"><code>tin -r</code></strong>. If
this does not help, try to rebuild the
groupinfo file by running
<strong class="userinput"><code>fetchnews -f</code></strong>.
</p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="backtrace"></a>Obtaining a stack backtrace</h2></div></div></div><p>This section will tell you how to obtain a <span class="emphasis"><em>stack
backtrace</em></span>, a special program state output that is
very useful to somebody who is about to debug a crash.</p><p>The prerequisite to work is that the program is
<span class="emphasis"><em>not stripped</em></span>, i. e. it contains the debug
symbols. That means leafnode must have been installed with
<strong class="userinput"><code>make install</code></strong> rather than <strong class="userinput"><code>make
install-strip</code></strong>. Note that most packagers (for RPM at
least) use <strong class="userinput"><code>make install-strip</code></strong> to save space.</p><p>To find out if your leafnode installation has been
<span class="emphasis"><em>stripped</em></span>, type <strong class="userinput"><code>file
/usr/local/sbin/leafnode</code></strong> (adjust the path as
necessary, packages will usually install to
<code class="filename">/usr/sbin/leafnode</code> instead), here is a sample
output of an unstripped program:</p><pre class="screen"><code class="prompt">$</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>file /usr/local/sbin/leafnode</code></strong>
<code class="computeroutput">/usr/local/sbin/leafnode: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1,
dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped</code></pre><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="idm46355472035120"></a>From a core file.</h3></div></div></div><p>This is simple:
</p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>Type <strong class="userinput"><code>gdb
<em class="replaceable"><code>PROGRAM</code></em>
core</code></strong>. Replace
PROGRAM by the name of the
program that crashed, for
example fetchnews.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Type <strong class="userinput"><code>backtrace
full</code></strong>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Type
<strong class="userinput"><code>quit</code></strong>.</p></li></ol></div><p>
</p></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="idm46355472029456"></a>Running a program under gdb supervision.</h3></div></div></div><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>Type <strong class="userinput"><code>gdb
<em class="replaceable"><code>PROGRAM</code></em></code></strong>.
Replace PROGRAM by the name of the program that
crashes, for example fetchnews. Do not give any program
options, gdb does not understand them here.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Type <strong class="userinput"><code>run
<em class="replaceable"><code>OPTIONS</code></em></code></strong>, where
you name the options that you would normally pass to the
program itself. Just a plain
<strong class="userinput"><code>run</code></strong> is
also fine.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Wait until the program crashes. The output might
look like similar to this:</p><pre class="screen"><code class="computeroutput">
This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-linux-gnu"...</code>
<code class="prompt">(gdb)</code> <strong class="userinput"><code>run -vvn</code></strong>
<code class="computeroutput">
Starting program: /tmp/crashme
Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
main () at crashme.c:4
4 *x = 4;
<code class="prompt">(gdb)</code>
</code></pre></li><li class="listitem"><p>Type <strong class="userinput"><code>backtrace
full</code></strong>, this is the
desired <span class="emphasis"><em>stack backtrace</em></span>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Type <strong class="userinput"><code>quit</code></strong> to leave
gdb.</p></li></ol></div></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="idm46355472017328"></a>From a running/hanging leafnode
program.</h3></div></div></div><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p>Find out the Process
ID of the hanging leafnode
program. Type
<strong class="userinput"><code>ps axw | grep
<em class="replaceable"><code>PROGRAM</code></em> | grep -v
grep</code></strong> on BSD
systems and Linux,
replacing
<em class="replaceable"><code>PROGRAM</code></em> by the
name of the program. Use
<strong class="userinput"><code>ps -ef</code></strong>
instead on SysV systems such
as Solaris.</p><p>You will get an output
like:
</p><pre class="screen"> 1995 ? S 0:00 /usr/local/sbin/leafnode
</pre><p> 1995 is the
Process ID.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Then attach gdb:
<strong class="userinput"><code>gdb
<em class="replaceable"><code>PROGRAM</code></em>
<em class="replaceable"><code>12345</code></em></code></strong>,
replacing
<em class="replaceable"><code>PROGRAM</code></em> by the
program's name and
<em class="replaceable"><code>12345</code></em>
by the PID that you have just
found out.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Type
<strong class="userinput"><code>backtrace
full</code></strong>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Type
<strong class="userinput"><code>detach</code></strong>.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>Type
<strong class="userinput"><code>quit</code></strong>.</p></li></ol></div></div></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="redhat-xinetd"></a>Red Hat and the inetd vs. xinetd issue.</h2></div><div><div class="author"><h3 class="author"><span class="firstname">William</span> <span class="surname">Hooper</span></h3></div></div></div></div><p>RedHat Linux has changed stance on <span class="application">inetd</span>/<span class="application">xinetd</span>
over the years. In the 6.x version, <span class="application">inetd</span> was used, while
<span class="application">xinetd</span> is used in the 7.x series and 8.0. Note in the
following I make the assumption that the "Gnome workstation"
and "KDE workstation" installs are the same in regard to our
discussion. Also, when in doubt a simple <strong class="userinput"><code>rpm -qa
| grep <span class="application">inetd</span></code></strong> will show you if either inetd
or <span class="application">xinetd</span> is installed. The <span class="command"><strong>service</strong></span> and
<span class="command"><strong>chkconfig</strong></span> commands can be used to be sure
[x]<span class="application">inetd</span> is running and configured to run at boot time. By
default, runlevels 3, 4, and 5 start [x]<span class="application">inetd</span>.</p><p>Beginning with Redhat 6.2, <span class="application">inetd</span> was broken out as a
separate RPM and not included when doing a "Workstation"
install. This stands true for the 7.x series (<span class="application">xinetd</span> not
installed) until 7.3. In Redhat 7.3, <span class="application">xinetd</span> was added back
to the "Workstation" install as a dependency for "sgi_fam".
Note, this change is not reflected in the RH documentation,
which states that <span class="application">xinetd</span> is not installed in "Workstation"
installs. </p><p>In Redhat 8.0, the install options have changed, now
offering a "Personal Desktop" install. When doing a
"Workstation" or "Personal Desktop" install <span class="application">xinetd</span> is
installed as in 7.3, presumably to satisfy the same
dependency. </p><p>In cases where <span class="application">inetd</span> is not installed, no other RPMs
are required to install it. This means to install it you
have three options (for RedHat 6.2 substitute <span class="application">inetd</span> instead of
<span class="application">xinetd</span>): </p><div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1"><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Best</em></span>
- If you have registered for Redhat's up2date
service, just type "up2date xinetd" as
root.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Next Best</em></span>
- Install RPM from updates.redhat.com (version
numbers current as of 2002-11-10 for RH 7.3). You
can manually download the RPM and install it (as
root) using <strong class="userinput"><code>rpm -ivh
xinetd-2.3.9-0.73.i386.rpm</code></strong>, or have
RPM download it for you by using (again, as root)
<strong class="userinput"><code>rpm -ivh
http://updates.redhat.com/7.3/en/os/i386/xinetd-2.3.9-0.73.i386.rpm</code></strong></p></li><li class="listitem"><p><span class="emphasis"><em>Worse</em></span>
- Install the RPM from the original CD. This is usually the worse
option because the updates (used above) are released to fix security issues.
</p><p>
(All as root) First mount the first RH CD by putting it in the CD-ROM and
doing a <strong class="userinput"><code>mount /mnt/cdrom</code></strong>, and install the
RPM similar to this: <strong class="userinput"><code>cd
/mnt/cdrom/Redhat/RPMS/xinetd-2.3.7-2.i386.rpm</code></strong>.
</p></li></ol></div></div></div></body></html>
|
