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1.1 root 1: From cbosg!decvax!watmath!bstempleton Tue Mar 2 20:01:49 1982
2: Date: Mon Mar 1 19:37:04 1982
3: From: cbosg!decvax!watmath!bstempleton
4: Subject: net.adm.site stuff
5: Via: cbosgd.uucp (V3.73 [1/5/82]); 2-Mar-82 20:01:48-EST (Tue)
6: Mail-From: cbosg received by cbosgd at 2-Mar-82 20:01:45-EST (Tue)
7: To: decvax!cbosg!cbosgd!mark decvax!duke!unc!smb decvax!ittvax!swatt
8: decvax!shannon decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:glickman watarts!eric
9: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
10: OK, here goes - a new idea for automating some of the work done by news
11: administrators on the USENET.
12:
13: I propose the setting up of a set of control newsgroups called net.adm.*, which
14: will primarily be for computer rather than human consumption. Messages posted
15: to these groups will all be fed by lines in the SYS file into programs that
16: interpret them, as well as forwarding them to other systems.
17:
18: The first of these programs I include below. It is for a group to be called
19: net.adm.site, and implements automatic USENET directories. There are two
20: programs. One prompts a news administrator for information concerning his
21: site, and builds a file of it. This file is posted to net.adm.site.
22: One of the things the script asks for is a list of your uucp connections
23: in the format required by unc!smb's cheapest path uucp alias generator.
24: If all sites provide the public paths they have, this will allow the
25: generator to produce the best routings, saving everybody money and phone time.
26:
27: The second file reads articles posted to net.adm.site. It takes the system
28: name off the article-id and creates an entry for that site. Included in
29: that entry is a path to that site derived from the 'from' line in the
30: header. This article is appended to the USENET directory file, in this
31: case called /usr/lib/news/usenetdir, and deletes the old entry for that
32: site. If you want it to put the entry in a private one file per site
33: directory, the change is fairly obvious.
34:
35: This is a simple description, but the shell scripts are simple and easy to
36: read if you want to know what is going on. The scripts use A format so
37: that both A and B news users can take advantage of them. To install this
38: at your site:
39:
40: 1) Put the 'siteform' shell script somewhere hand so that you can execute
41: it when you like. If you run B news, it is probably a good idea to NOT
42: have net.adm groups in your ngfile, but rather manually, temporarily put
43: them in when the time comes to make an entry, to avoid accidental posting
44: to these groups by other users.
45:
46: 2) Put the 'recsite' shell script somewhere, and make it executable. I
47: suggest /usr/lib/news as a fine place for it, but anything will do.
48: (A sites don't have this directory, they can use another)
49:
50: 3) If you like, make recsite run setuid to the newsuser (and setgid if you
51: also desire) so that the usenet directory will not have to be generally
52: writable
53:
54: 4) Alter the variables in 'recsite' as you need regarding files and
55: directories to use. If you run A news, change the mentions of inews -t
56: to 'news -i' as you like.
57:
58: 5) add a line to your sys or .sys file to handle recsite. A typical line
59: might be:
60:
61: siterec:net.adm.site:A:/usr/lib/news/recsite
62:
63: This depends on what directories you have used etc.
64: Note also that the name 'siterec' is just a dummy name that should not
65: match any existing or likely uucp system name.
66:
67: You are now ready to go. I will be posting the watmath entry in a short
68: time. Entries are put in the usenetdir file with each line prepended with
69: "sitename;" so you can conveniently grep for info on a given site.
70:
71: In addition, each entry contains a line called 'Best Path:'. You will probably
72: want to alter this line when a new site entry comes in, since it will contain
73: the rather roundabout USENET path. This line can eventually be used for
74: things such as aliasing programs or to answer the user's question:
75: "How to I get to site X?"
76: Unfortunately, the Best Path part won't work if an ARPANET like is used,
77: as for site 'cca'. You'll have to manually alter this.
78: Eventually, best paths will be pulled out of the UUCP link entries in your
79: directory.
80:
81: There are further plans for net.adm.* These groups can be used for all
82: sorts of control messages that might also be read by humans unlike the
83: net.*.ctl messages coming out in the B release of netnews. It would
84: be fairly simple to set up programs to create a uucp 'phonebook' listing
85: people on the USENET (net.adm.phone) or a group in which newly created
86: uucp links are declared if you will allow public use on them.
87: (thus the wonder programs to do the graph theory on the net have a database
88: to work on.)
89:
90: If others have ideas - they can go ahead, all that need be done is to write
91: the code to enter items and the code to decode them. Post the code to the
92: net, with installation instructions, and wait for acceptance. In about
93: a week, assuming this idea is accepted, I will give the go-ahead for all
94: sites to post their entries. After this, every site that wants one will have
95: an up to date USENET directory in a standard form.
96:
97: Some further notes on installation:
98:
99: 1) You may desire to make it possible for users to subscribe to and read this
100: newsgroup. If you don't, and run B news there are a few ways you can stop the
101: articles from being posted. The first is the built in RESTRICT feature of B
102: news that lets you exclude newsgroups. Normally this is not turned on. The
103: second is a kludge involving chown. Allow the newsgroup net.adm.site (and
104: other net.adm.* groups as they come along) to be created. Once it is created,
105: chown the directory in which it lives to some user other than the newsuser.
106: (you will probably wish to chgrp it as well). Once this is done, attempts
107: to write into the directory by the news program, which is setuid, will fail
108: because of permissions denied. As far as I can tell, news just handles this
109: quietly and the article is not written. It is still forwarded however, which
110: is important.
111:
112: 2) The new release of B news involves control messages of the form all.all.ctl,
113: which are never put in files on the local system - just interpreted by special
114: case code. It is possible that once these are fully implemented that automatic
115: directory entries will switch over to this method, or use a combination of the
116: methods.
117:
118: 3) When you connect a new site to the USENET, you should send them your current
119: directory of the net and a copy of these programs for them to use to announce
120: themselves.
121:
122: 4) Use of these programs does not exclude normal, human readable announcement
123: in the group net.news.newsite. It is possible to change the 'siteform' script
124: to post to both net.adm.site and net.news.newsite, since the entries are
125: generally human readable, although they do not contain the uucp name of the
126: site anywhere. (That is pulled from the article-id)
127:
128: Here is the shell script for the reading program, called 'siteform'
129:
130: -------------------------------------------------------------------
131: san=/tmp/tan$$
132: SITEGROUP=net.adm.site
133: echo "Give the institution type name of your site, ie. the name of your company?"
134: read name
135: echo Site: $name >$san
136: echo "Please give the contact userid for uucp and usenet queries"
137: read contact
138: echo Contact userid: $contact >>$san
139: echo "What is the real name of the contact person?"
140: read realname
141: echo Contact name: $realname >>$san
142: echo "What is the postal service address of your site?"
143: echo "Type as many lines as you like, ending with a null line"
144: while { read addr; test -n "$addr"; }
145: do echo Address: $addr >>$san
146: done
147: echo "Please give the network names of your USENET partners (the people in your"
148: echo "sys (or .sys) file (seperated by commas)"
149: read unpart
150: echo Usenet partners: $unpart >>$san
151: cat <<"blart"
152: Please give the network names of the people that you talk to
153: on the uucp network. This information is desired for a database of UUCP
154: connections from which UUCP aliasing files can be built through a program
155: written by unc!smb. List each site to which you have a uucp connection
156: that you wish to make public. To list a site, give its UUCP name, followed
157: by a value describing how useful the connection is in parentheses. Your
158: cost can be given as a standard arithmetic expression. The lower the number,
159: the better the line is. The following 'manifests' are known to the program
160: with the following values: (If you don't give an expression, 3000 is default)
161: LOCAL = 10
162: ARPA = 31
163: DED = 95
164: DEDICATED = 95
165: DIRECT = 200
166: DEMAND = 300
167: DIAL = 300
168: DIALED = 300
169: HOURLY = 500
170: POLLED = 5000
171: DAILY = 5000
172: WEEKLY = 30000
173: DEAD = INF/2
174: HIGH = -5 /* baud rate bonus */
175: LOW = 5 /* baud rate penalty */
176:
177: Delimit your entries with commas. Type as many lines as you like,
178: (naturally, don't put a comma after the last entry) and enter a null
179: line when you are done. Here is an example:
180: decvax(2*HOURLY), watcgl(DIRECT), watarts(DEMAND),
181: hcr(POLLED), cbosg(WEEKLY)
182: blart
183: while { read uupart; test -n "$uupart"; }
184: do echo Partners: $uupart >>$san
185: done
186: echo "Please give the voice phone number of the contact person at your site."
187: echo "(nnn) nnn-nnnn format please"
188: read voiph
189: echo Voice phone: $voiph >>$san
190: echo "Please give the data dial-in number of your system if you wish to give it"
191: echo "Also give the type of modem on these dial in lines."
192: echo "Type in: (nnn) nnn-nnnn modem type"
193: read dialno
194: echo Dial in: $dialno >>$san
195: echo "Please give the names/classifications of newsgroups that you receive"
196: echo "at your site. You may want to include local area groups you work with."
197: echo "Example: net.all,fa.all - internally wat.all"
198: read ngrps
199: echo Subscribes to: $ngrps >>$san
200: echo "Please indicate your willingness to allow other sites to connect to you"
201: echo "for USENET news and mail. Indicate if you can call other sites, how"
202: echo "far you can call, or if you will only give news to those who can call you."
203: read will
204: echo Willingness: $will >>$san
205: echo "To help in producing a USENET map, would you please give your latitude"
206: echo "and longitude on the following line. please type in the figures in the"
207: echo "form 'deg.min D deg.min D', latitude first, longitude second. For"
208: echo "example, something like '43.00 N 75.00 W' is in the right format"
209: echo "Note that if you can't find this information, don't worry about it."
210: echo "You can always submit the information in a later entry"
211: read loc
212: echo Location: $loc >>$san
213: echo "Please enter any comments you might wish to add to your directory entry."
214: echo "You may want to describe what hardware you have, or just give additional"
215: echo "details regarding your site. Enter an EOF to indicate you are done"
216: while read cline
217: do echo Comment: $cline >>$san
218: done
219: echo "Here is your USENET directory entry. Enter a newline to send it off."
220: echo "Anything else will abort the sending and leave the entry in $san"
221: cat $san
222: read abrt
223: if test -z "$abrt"
224: then inews -n $SITEGROUP -t "sitedir \"$name\"" -q <$san
225: rm $san
226: else
227: echo "Your item is now in file $san"
228: echo "You may edit it, and post it with the command:"
229: echo "inews -n $SITEGROUP -t \"sitedir "$name"\" -q <$san"
230: fi
231: ------------------------------------------------------------------------
232:
233: Here is the decoding program, called 'recsite', to go in /usr/lib/news if
234: you desire. Note a temporary file is needed, you should define it as
235: you like.
236:
237: -------------------------------------------------------------------------
238: DIRFILE=/usr/lib/news/usenetdir
239: DIRTEM=/usr/lib/news/dirtem
240: read site
241: site=`echo $site | sed -e 's/^A//' -e 's/\..*$//'`
242: read groups
243: read path
244: path=`echo $path | sed -e 's/^[^!:]*[!:]//' -e 's/[!:]*[^!:]*$//'`
245: read date
246: read title
247: if test ! -r $DIRFILE; then
248: touch $DIRTEM
249: else
250: sed -e "/^$site;/d" >$DIRTEM <$DIRFILE
251: fi
252: while read item; do
253: echo "$site;$item" >>$DIRTEM
254: done
255: echo "$site;Best Path: $path" >>$DIRTEM
256: mv $DIRTEM $DIRFILE
257: --------------------------------------------------------------
258:
259:
260:
261:
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