Hello,

In the actsync man page

https://linux.die.net/man/8/actsync

(I have the same from my terminal)

news.uu.net is given as news server example. Is it simply a dummy domain
to be replaced by a true one ? it don't seems to works by itself

news> actsync news.uu.net
actsync: cannot connect to server: Success

the final message is surprising :-)

asking with alphanet or aioe gives result (with lot of errors from
them), but for example

news> actsync nntp.pasdenom.info
actsync: cannot retrieve data

so what is the preferred test server?

thank
jdd

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Hi,
jdanield a tapoté le 23/01/2022 09:32:

news> actsync nntp.pasdenom.info
actsync: cannot retrieve data

so what is the preferred test server?

It is my fault.

In the past I've configured :
nolist: true
in incoming.conf (I do not remember why).


I've just removed it...


--
Stéphane

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Le 23/01/2022 à 12:16, yamo' a écrit :

Hi,
jdanield a tapoté le 23/01/2022 09:32:

news> actsync nntp.pasdenom.info
actsync: cannot retrieve data

so what is the preferred test server?

It is my fault.

not a fault (IMHO)


I just quoted this because I had it. The real question was

is news.uu.net just a place holder or was it time ago a real server?

thanks
jdd

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Bonjour Jean-Daniel,

In the actsync man page
https://linux.die.net/man/8/actsync

so what is the preferred test server?

In the above man page, you'll read:

"""
INN comes with default values of ftp.isc.org for <host> and /pub/usenet/CONFIG/active.gz for <path-to-active>.  You can read about
the policies used for maintaining that active file at <https://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/README>.  Consider synchronizing
from this file on a daily basis by using cron.
"""

Incidentally, man pages are better displayed here:
https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/inn/docs/

The above link at linux.die.net is pretty hard to read.

https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/inn/docs/actsync.html

--
Julien ÉLIE

« Il y a deux sortes de justice : vous avez l'avocat qui connaît bien la
loi, et l'avocat qui connaît bien le juge ! » (Coluche)

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Bonjour Jean-Daniel,

In the actsync man page
https://linux.die.net/man/8/actsync

news.uu.net is given as news server example. Is it simply a dummy domain
to be replaced by a true one ? it don't seems to works by itself

news> actsync news.uu.net
actsync: cannot connect to server: Success

the final message is surprising :-)

I do not manage to reproduce the behaviour:

% actsync news.uu.net
actsync: cannot connect to server: Invalid argument

so what is the preferred test server?

In the above man page, you'll read:

"""
INN comes with default values of ftp.isc.org for <host> and /pub/usenet/CONFIG/active.gz for <path-to-active>. You can read about
the policies used for maintaining that active file at <https://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/README>. Consider synchronizing
from this file on a daily basis by using cron.
"""

So the preferred "test" host is ftp.isc.org.
It's the one already configured in the actsync.cfg sample file shipped
with INN:

## Sample actsync configuration file.
##
## It permits synchronizing, comparing, or merging active files.
## It is useful for keeping the list of carried newsgroups
## up to date.
## See the actsync man page for more information.

host=ftp.isc.org
ftppath=/pub/usenet/CONFIG/active.gz
flags=-v 0 -p 80
ignore_file=actsync.ign


Running "actsyncd actsync.cfg" works fine. Just re-tested.

--
Julien ÉLIE

« Il y a deux sortes de justice : vous avez l'avocat qui connaît bien la
loi, et l'avocat qui connaît bien le juge ! » (Coluche)

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Bonjour Jean-Daniel,

The real question was

is news.uu.net just a place holder or was it time ago a real server?

UUNET was an American ISP, founded in 1987 and which apparently was
involved in providing access to Usenet, e-mails, source code
repositories... (according to Wikipedia)

news.uu.net was their news server.
And Rich Salz, the creator of INN, used their services (he had
a uunet.uu.net e-mail address, and the INN mailing-lists addresses
also ended with @uunet.uu.net).


I've finally had a deeper look at how the actsync man page is written.
I agree it is not easy at all to understand what to do when you discover
that program.

Following the idea already implemented in a few other man pages, I've
just added a new Section at the beginning of the actsync documentation.
I hope it will be clearer this way. Does it sound enough for you this way?


IN A NUTSHELL
These programs permit keeping the list of newsgroups your news server
carry synchronized with an external source.

For instance, you can decide to carry the same newsgroups as another
news server or as the ones listed in a file from an external FTP site,
and therefore synchronizing with the chosen source on a daily basis by
running actsyncd in a cron job.

If you only want a subset of newsgroups from that source, it can be
parametered in the actsync.ign configuration file in the pathetc
directory.

INN comes with a default configuration for fetching the list of
newsgroups from "ftp.isc.org". You can read about the policies used
for maintaining that active file at
<https://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/README>. Just make sure
actsync.cfg (the configuration file) and actsync.ign (the
synchronization rules) suit your needs, and run:

actsyncd <pathetc>/actsync.cfg

You'll find more detailed examples of use below in this man page.



And also, I've changed references to news.uu.net so that it is less
confusing nowadays. Examples now simply use news.server.com.

--
Julien ÉLIE

« Il buvait toutes mes paroles, et comme je parlais beaucoup, à un
moment, je le vois qui titubait… » (Raymond Devos)

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Bonjour Jean-Daniel,

UUNET was an American ISP, founded in 1987 and which apparently was

but at some moment I had an answer from them, I feel like they still
maintain moderators file

You received an answer from someone (Todd) managing the
@moderators.isc.org aliases, not UUNET.

Following the idea already implemented in a few other man pages,

thanks, looks good. When you do so, can you give a web link to the new
file? It may take ages before reaching distro package :-(

Up-to-date documentation is always available here:
https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/inn/docs/

Russ synchronizes it when publishing in his blog, which is usually at
least once a week.

I plan - if time permits - to install too more inn servers (one on my
freebox delta and the other for my local linux groups), and will review
the setup accordingly

Thanks! Feedback welcome on the new CHECKLIST and man pages in general.

--
Julien ÉLIE

« Il buvait toutes mes paroles, et comme je parlais beaucoup, à un
moment, je le vois qui titubait… » (Raymond Devos)

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Le 05/02/2022 à 10:53, Julien ÉLIE a écrit :

Bonjour Jean-Daniel,

The real question was

is news.uu.net just a place holder or was it time ago a real server?

UUNET was an American ISP, founded in 1987 and which apparently was

but at some moment I had an answer from them, I feel like they still
maintain moderators file

Following the idea already implemented in a few other man pages,

thanks, looks good. When you do so, can you give a web link to the new
file? It may take ages before reaching distro package :-(

I plan - if time permits - to install too more inn servers (one on my
freebox delta and the other for my local linux groups), and will review
the setup accordingly

thanks
jdd

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On Sat, 5 Feb 2022 10:53:01 +0100
Julien ÉLIE <iulius@nom-de-mon-site.com.invalid> wrote:

I've finally had a deeper look at how the actsync man page is written.
I agree it is not easy at all to understand what to do when you
discover that program.

Totally agree. The main problem for me was figuring out how to keep up
with 3 peers without destorying the contents from one another. I'm
still not sure how to do it so I just do it manually.

I'll have a read through your additions and see if they help.

Thanks,
Nigel

--
End Of The Line BBS - Plano, TX
telnet endofthelinebbs.com 23

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Hi Nigel,

The main problem for me was figuring out how to keep up
with 3 peers without destorying the contents from one another. I'm
still not sure how to do it so I just do it manually.

Do you mean that you want to synchronize your list of newsgroups with
different lists from different servers?
You'll need 3 actsync.cfg and actsync.ign configuration files to set up
these 3 external sources and what you want to synchronize from each one
(for a given source, ignore everything except the hierarchies you
consider being authoritative for that source).

Or is it something else you want to achieve?
Do you have a concrete case to share? (What are the groups for these 3
external sources?)

--
Julien ÉLIE

« A program should always respond to the user in the way that astonishes
him least. » (Plauger's Law of Least Astonishment)

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On Sun, 6 Feb 2022 22:07:51 +0100
Julien ÉLIE <iulius@nom-de-mon-site.com.invalid> wrote:

Hi Nigel,

The main problem for me was figuring out how to keep up
with 3 peers without destorying the contents from one another. I'm
still not sure how to do it so I just do it manually.

Do you mean that you want to synchronize your list of newsgroups with different lists from different servers?
You'll need 3 actsync.cfg and actsync.ign configuration files to set
up these 3 external sources and what you want to synchronize from
each one (for a given source, ignore everything except the
hierarchies you consider being authoritative for that source).

Or is it something else you want to achieve?
Do you have a concrete case to share? (What are the groups for these
3 external sources?)

I have 3 peers and I want to make sure that I have all the groups from
all the servers in my active file.


--
End Of The Line BBS - Plano, TX
telnet endofthelinebbs.com 23

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Hi Nigel,

I have 3 peers and I want to make sure that I have all the groups from
all the servers in my active file.

Oh, I see.
You may try "actsync -m" (merge feature), running it against the three
peers. Local newsgroups will not be marked for removal, so you'll end
up having all the newsgroups of your 3 peers.
Nonetheless, you won't be aware of a newsgroup removed from the 3 peers.


What would you think of this mix of getlist, actmerge and actsync?

# Retrieve the list of newsgroups of the 3 peers.
getlist -h peer1 > active-peer1
getlist -h peer2 > active-peer2
getlist -h peer3 > active-peer3

# Generate an ignore file indicating to take everything.
echo 'c *' > actmerge.ign

# Merge the 3 lists.
actmerge actmerge.ign actmerge.ign ./active-peer1 ./active-peer2 > active-merged12
actmerge actmerge.ign actmerge.ign ./active-merged12 ./active-peer3 > active-merged123

# Output ctlinnd commands corresponding to the actions to take
# in order to have the same newsgroups as the 3 peers.
actsync -o c ./active-merged123 -


And then, if that's OK for you, just pipe the final result to "sh" or "mod-active".



Does it correspond to what you were looking for?

--
Julien ÉLIE

« A program should always respond to the user in the way that astonishes
him least. » (Plauger's Law of Least Astonishment)

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On Mon, 7 Feb 2022 20:22:26 +0100
Julien ÉLIE <iulius@nom-de-mon-site.com.invalid> wrote:

Hi Nigel,

I have 3 peers and I want to make sure that I have all the groups
from all the servers in my active file.

Oh, I see.
You may try "actsync -m" (merge feature), running it against the
three peers. Local newsgroups will not be marked for removal, so
you'll end up having all the newsgroups of your 3 peers.
Nonetheless, you won't be aware of a newsgroup removed from the 3
peers.

Yup, that may be an issue. Therein lies the problem.

What would you think of this mix of getlist, actmerge and actsync?

Convoluted? I'll have to look and see what it does when I get a chance
and let you know.

Thanks for putting that together.

--
End Of The Line BBS - Plano, TX
telnet endofthelinebbs.com 23

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