From: SMTP%"Mark.Martinec@IJS.SI" 23-JAN-1995 09:43:53.71 To: EVERHART CC: Subj: Re: FAQ: news.software.anu-news Message-Id: <199501221056.FAA15441@mx.smtp.psi.net> Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 15:37:35 GMT Reply-To: Mark Martinec Sender: ANU-NEWS Discussion From: Mark Martinec Organization: J. Stefan Institute, Lj, Slovenia Subject: Re: FAQ: news.software.anu-news To: Multiple recipients of list ANU-NEWS I would only like to point out that the work on ANU-NEWS after its B9 release in May 94 has not stopped. Anyone willing to help is welcome - either in the form of posting patches for smaller changes (which normally get included in the next release), or else I know that Bob Sloane makes possible the access to the developement version for those who are willing to make a larger change/contribution to the code. Below is the list of changes that were made to the code after the B9 release. In addition to the people mentioned below, there were a bunch of other kind people who were willing to test or allow us to test the new code in their specific environment (compiler / VMS version / TCP transport sw) - thanks goes to all of them. ALL MODULES (major effort went in the code to conform to ANSI C (GCC & DECC)): * V6.1b9 17-Aug-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - code cleanup to make it compile under gcc 2.6.0 with full * warnings reporting turned on - with no or very few harmless warnings * V6.1b9 17-Sep-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - code cleanup to preserve the read-only nature of string literals * (strategically placed 'const' attribute to string parameters) NEWSMSG.COM: * V6.1B9 25-May-1994 Pat Rankin, rankin@eql.caltech.edu * - initial version -- construct source file newsmsg.h from newsmsg.msg * V6.1B10 26-Oct-1994 Pat Rankin, rankin@eql.caltech.edu * - turn off DCL verification by default, and add 'newsmsg_debug' * to control reenabling it during execution NNTP_TCPUCXM: * V6.1b9 23-May-1994 Alan Greig ccdarg@zippy.dct.ac.uk * - change #include errno to #include under DECC, because * DECC chokes on the former under some (unclear) circumstances. NNTP_SERVER: * V6.1b9 24-May-1994 Charles Bailey bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - added further file optimizations based on patch noted in * previous comment (930723_nntp_server.c!saul@hnrc.tufts.edu). * V6.1b9 14-Jun-1994 Saul Tannenbaum saul@hnrc.tufts.edu * - RMS optimizations to item, group and history file * V6.1b9 4-AUG-1994 Wayne Westmoreland wayne.westmoreland@srs.gov * - Changed auth_list to: 1) Not allow posting for just anyone to a * restricted newsgroup even if it is marked * as writable. * 2) Return with an error if the user does not * have write privilege to even *one* * newsgroup being posted to. * V6.1b9 24-Aug-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - code cleanup to make it compile under ansi c * (lots of typecasting and minor changes, include newsextern.h * to avoid lots of duplication in prototype declarations, modified * some function declarations to match prototypes in newsextern.h) * V6.1b9 03-Oct-1994 Wayne Westmoreland (wayne.westmoreland@srs.gov) * - Fixed bug in XHDR where continuation lines were not being returned. * This caused clients problems when attempting to mark crossposted * articles as read or when trying to do reference line threading. * V6.1b10 16-Nov-1994 Bob Sloane sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu * - Modified the behavior of the POST command to allow remote * moderation of newsgroup. Now all that is required is that the * article have an Approved: header. This is consistant with the * way INN works, and has been requested by several users. * V6.1b10 4-Jan-1995 Bob Sloane sloane@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu * added a primitive version of NOV support. Only enabled if XOVER * is defined. It is OFF by default. NEWSUTILITY: * V6.1b9 22-May-1994 Charles Bailey bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - fix memory usage bug which snuck into 6.1b9 release with another patch * V6.1b9 25-May-1994 Charles Bailey bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - add flk to do_openi and do_oitem to allow skim to ignore * contention for item files * V6.1b9 25-May-1994 Pat Rankin rankin@eql.caltech.edu * - avoid use of `union SMGDEF'; module $SMGDEF is hopelessly mangled * V6.1b9 27-May-1994 Charles Bailey bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - check that group has idmap list before using it in get_itm_by_ident() * V6.1b9 1-Jun-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - ignore SMG$_NONBRDMSG messages in display_brdcst() * V6.1b9 7-Jun-1994 Charles Bailey bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - fix bug in map_items() which caused grp_topnum to be set incorrectly * under some circumstances (particularly when group has only one item) * V6.1b9 20-Jun-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - don't take MAIL$_TEXT seriously in news_condition_handler() * - introduce variable 'signalled_error_count' in order to limit * the infinite loops through the condition handler * V6.1b9 23-Jun-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - applied code cleanup patch (gcc) by Pat Rankin (rankin@eql.caltech.edu) * V6.1b9 17-Sep-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - in map_items: assure that negative number is not assigned * to unsigned gap->grp_iasize -- this led later to * news_malloc(very_very_large_number) and subsequent crash * V6.1b9 14-Nov-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - in routine do_new_item() replace statically allocated xrefline * with a dynamic one to avoid memory corruption during processing * of articles with long 'Xref:' lists * V6.1b9 29-Dec-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - added some type casting to news_*alloc() calls * - in map_items: additional check for validity of max item number * against grp_topnum NEWSSKIP: * 6.1b8 24-Jan-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - replace calls to smg$put_chars with calls to smg_put_chars * - check status returned from all calls to SMG$ NEWSSKIM: * V6.1b9 25-May-1994 Charles Bailey bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - add flk param to do_oitem calls and _ck_*_info macros so * file error doesn't cause entire skim pass to abort * V6.1b9 2-Jun-1994 bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - once a newsgroup is deleted, don't try to fix item counts in * (now nonexistent) group index record * V6.1b9 23-Jul-1994 Charles Bailey bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - fixed bug in doskim() which caused infinite loop if newsgroups * pattern specified in Skim command matched all groups * - fixed bug in grp_skim() which caused groups to be processed twice * when skimming a subset of newsgroups NEWSSETSHOW: * V6.1b9 6-Oct-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - when NNTP_CLIENT_ONLY do not call the following routines routines: * add_check_id, clear_gl, server_check, noserver_add, noserver_skim * since they are not present NEWSRTL: * V6.1b9 27-May-1994 mark.martinec@ijs.si * - add conditionally compiled code to news_*alloc* / free routines * to fill the allocated areas with known contents * and to check the guard region before deallocation * (see macros FILL_CH, GUARD_CH, GUARD_L) * V6.1b9 6-Jun-1994 saul@hnrc.tufts.edu * - in file_copy, dynamically allocate a buffer of up to 63 blocks * V6.1b9 21-Jun-1994 mark.martinec@ijs.si * - as recommended by Pat Rankin (rankin@eql.caltech.edu) I revoked * the routine get_cio_fabrab(): it was of little use, * the method is unsupported by DEC, and it contained a bug * - use macros set_errno and set_vaxc_errno to set values * of errno and vaxc$errno since the proper way to do it * is compiler-dependent * - change news_assert to just do the normal error signalling * and not to force program to abort * V6.1b9 23-Jun-1994 mark.martinec@ijs.si * - applied code cleanup patch (gcc) by Pat Rankin (rankin@eql.caltech.edu) * V6.1b9 17-Sep-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - add sanity check to the size in news_malloc_raw * V6.1b9 6-Oct-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - reference XABFHC field xab$b_bkz in a more compiler-independent way * so that DECC on VAX sees the field declaration * - provide an alternative simple version of memory allocation * routines if one prefers a faster but not-so-thourough-checking * and not-so-robust version of memory allocation routines * (enable it by: #define SIMPLE_MALLOC 1 ) * V6.1b9 4-Jan-1995 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - allow news_free(NULL) (ANSI C explicitly allows free(NULL)) * - optionally fill news_free-ed memory with VOID_CH in the hope * of catching a reuse of already released memory (normally off) * - changed return type of news_free*() functions from int to void * to make them interchangeable with equivalent C library functions * - eliminated news_cfree() and news_cfree_raw() since they * were never used and cfree() is not in ANSI C library NEWSREMCLIENT: * V6.1b9 23-Sep-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - replace testing macros MULTINET, UCX, TWG, ... for value * with a test for defined(), to prevent evaluating an undefined macro * V6.1b9 20-Oct-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - nntp_read() and nntp_read_line(): use memcpy for efficiency, * be more careful and avoid writing beyond buffer size * - nntp_write(): bump obuf buffer size to accomodate * inpline buffer in a call to nntp_write() from post_to_server() * - remove definition of MAX_NNTP_SIZE as it is not used anymore NEWSREAD: * V6.1b8 22-Dec-1993 mark.martinec@ijs.si * - convert calls to RMS to use new sys_* macros for error handling NEWSRC: * V6.1b8 24-May-1994 mark.martinec@ijs.si * - avoid calling clsallfiles(n) from fastscan() before files are open * V6.1b9 26-May-1994 bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - fixed bug which caused profile DotNewsRc setting to override /DotNewsRC * qualifier on News CL once startup was completed * V6.1b9 24-Jun-1994 bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - moved code from read_reg_file() to reg_context() to restore context * to group+item at which last session ended. * V6.1b9 17-Sep-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - added procedure get_tag_word * V6.1b9 22-Sep-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - rewritten function putl to avoid modifying const parameter string * V6.1b9 14-Oct-1994 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - in write_reg_file() hopefully fixed the statement: * if (l_ga->grp_topreadnum > l_ga->grp_topnum) l_ga->grp_topreadnum = l_g a->grp_topnum; * which should now handle the case of newsrc file being out of sync * with the highest article number within a group NEWSFILES: * V6.1b9 1-Jun-1994 mark.martinec@ijs.si * - set variable brdcst_col in get_input_general() (which knows * the actual size of the prompt) as a temporary remedy for * cursor repositioning problems after displaying broadcast messages. * The true solution would be to move the call to display_brdcst() * out of the AST routine. The problem remains as the code stands now * because during data entry in smg$read_composed_line() * the exact cursor position is not known outside SMG. * V6.1b9 14-Jun-1994 saul@hnrc.tufts.edu * - modifications to some of my rms performance patches: * separate out potentially dangerous deferred write * add latent support for "fast delete" on item file * change logical names to conform to NEWS_ standard NEWSDIST: * V6.1b9 04-Jun-1994 munroe@dmc.com * - Rig a mechanism for limiting the sizes of individual NNTP batches. * The Type of Batch field can be of the form Nnumber where number is * the number of articles to be included in each batch. NEWSCONTROL: * V6.1b9 25-May-1994 Charles Bailey bailey@genetics.upenn.edu * - add dummy flk param to do_oitem calls * V6.1b9 24-May-1994 mark.martinec@ijs.si * - avoid looping when an empty article is received like in: * #! rnews 1 * #! rnews 1798 * V6.1b9 14-Jun-1994 Saul Tannenbaum saul@hnrc.tufts.edu * - add rms tuning hooks * V6.1b9 22-Jun-1994 mark.martinec@ijs.si * - make header_size and body_size module-global variables; * - create_article, length_header: make a more accurate * estimate on article size (based on previous patch by ST) * in order to pre-allocate the proper file size * during the .ITM file creation. * Also remove an unnecessary fstat used to get the tmp file size. * - add RELAY_VERSION to the set of header lines that should * not be wrapped; * - better handle cases when batch file can not be opened * (more informative diagnostics, skip the file) * V6.1b9 5-Jan-1995 Mark Martinec mark.martinec@ijs.si * - added to statistics report: CPU load, average article crossposting -- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! Mark Martinec (system manager) tel +386 61 1259-199 !! !! J. Stefan Institute, Jamova 39 fax +386 61 219-385 !! !! 61000 Ljubljana, Slovenia mark.martinec@ijs.si !! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.ijs.si/ !!!!!