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Article #3304

can C-news and mail be distributed in binary form ?

#3304
From: Vince Skahan
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 21:32
46 lines
2587 bytes
I'm currently running the public domain unix clone Linux at home
and have a normal USENET software setup running quite happily.
(c-news,elm,trn,tin,nn,smail3.1.28)

Several of the projects being done under linux are the assembling
of a number of canned 'collections of stuff' kits for those folks
who don't want to compile the whole thing from sources.

I'm interested in whether it's theoretically possible, assuming
some standard setup (directory structure, domainized headers, etc.)
to come up with a binary-only distribution of C-news, newsreaders,
and 'elm'.

Looking at it, I've reached the following conclusions so far:

	- smail3.1.28 looks probable since you can set the domain
		and header in the runtime 'config' file.

	- C-news looks maybe possible if you can use the mailpaths,
		organiation, whoami, and mailname files.  Is it 
		'that' easy ?

	- elm looks shaky since you have to assume so much when you
		compile it.  In particular, you need to set domainized
		headers or not, append the domain or not, and compile in
		the domain or not (and specify it if yes).  I know you
		could set a .elm/elmheaders file with Reply-To: set on
		a personal basis and workaround some of it, but maybe not
		all of it.  Can somebody fill me in regarding whether it's
		possible to pick the local domain from a file rather than
		from a compilation option...the docs seem pretty shaky
		in that area.

	- newsreaders seem to have lots of things like hostnames and
		domains compiled in, making them questionable. In particular,
		I'm thinking of 'nn', 'trn', and 'tin'. Again, can these
		grab the domain name from a file or something or can C-news's
		posting/mail mechanism take care of filling in the mail
		name.domain for mail replies and the systemname for posts ?

Any responses (via mail would probably be best) would be appreciated.
I'll be happy to summarize anything conclusive...

-- 
     ---------- Vince Skahan --------- vince@victrola.sea.wa.us ----------
    Running Linux/C-news/trn/Elm/Smail - we don't need no steenkin' MS-DOS 
Technical Details
Message-ID: <1992Nov10.213219.951@victrola.sea.wa.us>
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!emory!ogicse!news.u.washington.edu!uw-beaver!uw-coco!quick!victrola!vince

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!emory!ogicse!news.u.washington.edu!uw-beaver!uw-coco!quick!victrola!vince
From: vince@victrola.sea.wa.us (Vince Skahan)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.software.readers,comp.mail.elm
Subject: can C-news and mail be distributed in binary form ?
Message-ID: <1992Nov10.213219.951@victrola.sea.wa.us>
Date: 10 Nov 92 21:32:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: victrola.1992Nov10.213219.951
Organization: Vince and Suzie's Underpowered PC
Lines: 46