🚀 go-pugleaf

RetroBBS NetNews Server

Inspired by RockSolid Light RIP Retro Guy

Article View: news.admin
Article #15

Re: Automating News Maintenance (was Re: Enough already!!!)

#15
From: Dave Ratcliffe
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1992 02:12
70 lines
4080 bytes
 In article <1992Oct23.054825.23591@oracle.us.oracle.com>, rchilder@us.oracle.com (Richard Childers) writes:
 > 
 > lendl@cosy.sbg.ac.at (Otmar Lendl) writes:
 > 
 > >>PS to anyone else that is still reading this:  Crap like this is why I
 > >>have news on both of the systems that I control set up to ignore all
 > >>rmgroup and newgroup requests in the alt hierarchy.  I routinely
 > >>remove groups that show no activity and then create new groups if they
 > >>show sustained activity for about a week or so.  It seems like more
 > >>work but everything can be automated if you think about it for a while.
 > 
 > >Has anyone written such scripts ? If yes, please give me a pointer
 > >where to find them.
 > 
 > Last time I checked, news articles that didn't have corresponding groups
 > were put in /usr/spool/news/junk. Now, mind you, this was a couple of
 > years ago, but seems to me things haven't changed too much, and this is
 > still true. Most news administrators operate with less than ideal space
 > requirements, and use 'expire' or equivalent tools to clean house often.
 > Many of these administrators target /usr/spool/news/junk first.
 > 
 > Before doing this, write a script that scans all files in /usr/spool/news/junk
 > and searches them for "^Newsgroup:" lines, then, for each group named, if it
 > doesn't exist, is newgroup'd locally. _Then_ clean /usr/spool/news/junk ...

Software exists already to do this. I'm sure it's out there in all the
popular ftp and anon uucp or mailserver sites but it's up to someone
else to come up with locations and file names. I recieved it as
mvjunk.tar.Z some time ago. Last modified in 1990 by Dave Wright 
(dww@stl.stc.co.uk). From the first few lines of the shell executable:

 #!/bin/sh
# @(#)mvjunk.sh   (TRW Advanced Technology Facility) STA 2-Jun-1985
#
# Modified 10/22/85-James M. Scardelis, SA, Warner Computer Systems
#       to create newsgroups locally only.
#
# Modified April 1989 David Wright  dww@stl.stc.co.uk
#	to fix bugs in group creation and make directories include parents
#
# Modified March 1990 David Wright  dww@stl.stc.co.uk
#	to prevent group appearing in active twice when unspooled inews used
#
# This program is in the public domain - do with it whatever you like.
#
# Move news files out of junk and into their proper directories,
# updating the active list and localgroups as we go.
# Unknown newsgroups found in junked articles are created by adding an
# entry to the active file and creating the directory.    A newgroups
# article is also posted in case the group is required across the local net.
#
# Be CAREFUL with that active list!  Although we try to write out
# buffers as quickly as possible, conflicts can occur if someone else
# tries to use it at the same time this script is running!
#
# Actions taken and strange occurences are recorded in mvjunk-log.

> It's sufficiently easy that it is worth writing oneself, to better one's
> understanding of the process. Properly done, no news system should need an
> administrator, it should run like clockwork and call politely for help long
> before the filesystem fills up ...

The code in mvjunk has possibilities for the dedicated shell hacker.
Maybe Dave has already made mods in a newer version than I have here.

-- 
 ...uunet!wa3wbu!frackit!dave -or-                       |  Dave Ratcliffe  |
 frackit!dave@uunet.UU.NET -or- dave@frackit.uucp -or-   |  Sys. <*> Admin. |
 vogon1!compnect!frackit!dave@psuvax1.psu.edu            | Harrisburg,  Pa. |
Technical Details
Message-ID: <1745@frackit.UUCP>
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!gatech!psuvax1!vogon1!wa3wbu!frackit!dave
References: <1992Oct15.090408@mccall.com> <1992Oct23.054825.23591@oracle.us.oracle.com>

Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!gatech!psuvax1!vogon1!wa3wbu!frackit!dave
From: dave@frackit.UUCP (Dave Ratcliffe)
Newsgroups: news.admin,alt.config
Subject: Re: Automating News Maintenance (was Re: Enough already!!!)
Summary: mvjunk.sh does the trick
Keywords: newgroup rmgroup automat
Message-ID: <1745@frackit.UUCP>
Date: 27 Oct 92 02:12:17 GMT
References: <1992Oct15.090408@mccall.com> <1992Oct23.054825.23591@oracle.us.oracle.com>
Organization: Data Factory Services, Harrisburg, Pa.
Lines: 70