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
|
0.3.4 fixes bugs and improves portability. No new features.
--
0.3.3: The default e-mail address for the administrator used to be
"postmaster", now it's determined by the DEFAULT_ADMIN_EMAIL variable
in the Makefile.
--
0.3.2 is a bug fix release over 0.3.1. No incompats.
--
0.3.1 is a bug fix release over 0.3.0. No incompats.
--
0.3.0 has a lot of code level changes, but sn still behaves
much the same. Most of these changes have to do with cleaning up
the structure by drawing a clearer line between what is sn and what
is site policy. This has resulted in a bunch of stuff being
moved from the core into editable and overrideable scripts.
For those who have been using 0.2.5 in a "normal" way - global and
local newsgroups, and mailing lists - you needn't change anything
except maybe the NEWSMASTER macro. This macro was used to set the
email address of the site admin, now that address is configured in
the POST and HELLO scripts. The default is $NEWSMASTER environment
variable if set, otherwise $LOGNAME if set, otherwise "postmaster".
For other sites that have been using the spool in a novel way,
read on.
Programs removed:
The "throttle" and "sn-words" programs have been removed. You can
use those from an old distribution if you need them.
snntpd invocation:
snntpd now optionally invokes a logger to send log messages to, and
the INSTALL files show that option being used. This means the
"nntpd" wrapper script is no longer needed, but if you're happy with
the existing setup, there is no need to change the invocation.
snstore:
snstore no longer takes the -1 option. It was a mistake to document
it anyway. If you're using a custom storage script, it may be
easier to use snsend for your purpose now.
The junk newsgroup:
If you create a newsgroup "=junk", snstore and snsend (new program)
will put articles here that don't belong anywhere else, rather than
dropping them. If you want the old behaviour, which is to dump them
to descriptor 2 or drop them, don't create "=junk". The junk
newsgroup can be expired like any other news group, but it isn't
visible under snntpd.
Control messages:
By default now cancel control messages get mailed to you for action,
whereas before, sn didn't understand control messages at all. If
you don't like this, copy BINDIR/POST into SNROOT/.POST and edit it
to remove the first stanza.
snmail checking:
Old snmail used to check these things: valid newsgroup name;
existence of the newsgroup; presence of the message ID in the
database; and that SNROOT/.nopost does not exist. New snmail
doesn't. You can still request these checks by specifying snmail
-scn (send to [-s]nstore and tell it to also [-c]heck the database
but do [-n]ot store it).
sncancel (new) and inaccurate snntpd listing:
Some news readers complain if the news server's GROUP output lists
a certain number of articles, but fewer than those actually exist.
This problem will reappear in snntpd if you use sncancel, since
snntpd merely checks the lowest and highest articles, and assumes
there are no holes in between. I'm not likely to "fix" this, because
a news reader can't really expect the article count to not change,
even within a session.
.outgoing files (local newsgroups):
Please check that IF the .outgoing file has the executable
bit set, that it also has the "#!" interpreter line. snntpd now
runs the file directly (without sh) if it is executable, so that
.outgoing can be a binary. Otherwise if the file is not executable,
snntpd will still invoke it via sh. In the previous versions,
snntpd always invoked .outgoing via sh, and always disregarded the
file mode.
--
0.2.5 has some large code changes, and sn's behaviour has changed
in a few incompatible ways. Aside from these it is safe to use
these binaries on your old spool.
Permissions:
sn binaries are no longer setuid by default. Instead they get
their idea of running permissions from the permissions on SNROOT
(or $SNROOT environment variable). This means sn programs no longer
check $SNUID and $SNGID environment variables. If you've been using
snstore in a custom news spool injector, or have scripts that set
$SNUID/$SNGID, you'll want to recheck them.
Changes in snmail:
If no newsgroup is specified on the command line, snmail now looks
at the Return-Path: line before the From: line to get it's idea of
the destination newsgroup. If you've been letting snmail figure
the newsgroups on its own, check the invocation again or mail might
start going into the wrong newsgroups.
snpost:
snpost now mails failed postings to $LOGNAME if set, then falls back
to NEWSMASTER in config.h.
Compression:
Compression is now compile-time optional. If you opt not to compile
compression, you can't use the binaries on a spool with compressed
articles. sn won't warn you.
--
0.2.3 is a maintenance release.
If you're installing this version on top of a version prior to 0.2.2,
the previous snget script has been replaced by an snget binary, and
you may want to save the script before "make install". Invocation
is backwardly compatible but some options have been added.
The throttle program is no longer used, but is retained since it can
be useful if you decide to use a different method to obtain news.
If you're installing 0.2.3 on top of a version prior to 0.1.7,
and if you've used the compression facility, you'll need to dump
and restore the news spool because the compression code has changed.
See below.
If you're installing 0.2.3 on top of 0.1.8 or before and
you want to retain your current news spool, you MAY want to dump
and restore the spool (as above) IF you have had trouble using sn
with Netscape News. If you do so, your articles will be renumbered;
whereas before they started at 0, now they'll start at 10. See
below.
Dumping and restoring a spool
-----------------------------
Do this using the OLD version of sn:
$ cd SNROOT # the old SNROOT, if it's different from the new one.
$ BINDIR/sncat -n * >/tmp/arts
or:
$ BINDIR/sncat -n * |gzip -c >/tmp/arts.gz
You've now got a multi-megabyte file called /tmp/arts (or
/tmp/arts.gz) which contains your news spool. Don't forget the "-n".
If your SNROOT has changed since the old installation, just delete
the old spool (rm -rf SNROOT). Build and install as normal.
But if you're keeping the same spool directory, you'll want to clean
out the old spool. This retains your options, but removes your
old article files and deletes the database (which will be recreated).
Build and install as normal, then:
$ make spoolclean
and type 'y'.
Then restore into the new news spool, using the NEW sn binaries:
$ BINDIR/snstore </tmp/arts
or:
$ gzip -cd </tmp/arts.gz |BINDIR/snstore
$ rm /tmp/arts
Once you've done this, the article entry times will be off, so
nothing will get expired for the next week or so.
|
