ctlinnd newgroup ... lines which can be fed to shell for
execution (ie. 'cat pl.newsgroups | docheckgroups | sh')
moderators file:
All the postings to the moderated groups under pl.* should be sent to news-group-name@usenet.pl (with dots in the group name replaced by hyphens) - so to your 'moderators' file add the following somewhere near the beginning (before the default "*:%s@uunet.uu.net"):
pl.*:%s@usenet.pl
If you have installed the innd1.5.1 server and config files, you just
have to uncomment the appropriate line in the moderators file.
control.ctl file
To get all the new pl.* groups created and removed automatically when needed, add the following to the control.ctl file:newgroup:newgroup@usenet.pl:pl.*:doit=newgroup rmgroup:newgroup@usenet.pl:pl.*:doit=rmgroupIf you can check pgp-signed control messages, look at the end of this document to get more info about how to set it up for the pl.* hierarchy.
expire.ctl file
This is completely your (or your users) policy, how long to keep the postings in each group, but let me suggest you just one thing. There is a special group pl.answers which is much like all *.answers groups - it is moderated and all articles there are sent periodically with the appropriate 'Expires:' and 'Supersedes:' headers, so it would be best, if these were respected. If your 'standard' entry is like: '*:A:1:10:never' - ie. 'never' remove articles with 'Expires:' header before they expire - don't worry about pl.answers. But if you force all articles to be expired after say 10 days - please make an exception and add to the expire.ctl:
pl.answers:A:1:10:never
or:
pl.answers:A:1:10:60
which means keep articles there for at least 1 day, usually 10 days if
there is no 'Expires:' header, otherwise respect the header (but in the latter
case - not longer than 60 days even if Expires: header says it should
be kept longer). All the articles have maximum 30-40 days expiration
period, so any of the above will be ok. (It is a good idea to respect
these headers in other groups too, anyway).
2. Sending news
Unless you are receiving pl.* groups through your mainstream feed, you need to reconfigure a bit your server to send pl.* groups back. And even if you are receiving them through your normal feeds, please make sure they are included in the list of groups sent out.When you asked for a pl.* feed, you also got permission to send all pl.* groups back, so to your 'newsfeeds' file (that's in innd; in cnews it is called 'sys') add appropriate entry for sending the pl.* groups back. Use the 'pathhost' name (in our example - "news.pl") that you have got, to build the entry. For example, in innd (assuming getting news from sample.site.pl and sending them back there) it might look like:
plnews/news.pl\
:!*,pl.*\
:Tf,Wnm:
(replace "news.pl" with what appears in the Path: field put there by
the site feeding you) and then you also need to tell your cron job
sending news, to send them also to "sample.site.pl". If you are using
nntpsend/innxmit, add to the nntpsend.ctl file:
plnews:sample.site.pl:::-T1720 -t300
^ ^ ^
| | + Other useful parameters
| Internet addres of your pl.* provider
+-- Name used in newsfeeds file.
That should be all... You may now post a test message to pl.test and
expect a reply in e-mail within a day or so, as there is an automatic
pl.test responder attached to one of the servers in Poland. If your
test posting reaches it - get yourself a beer, as you have done a good
work. :-) If you do not want to get the reply message - just include
the word 'ignore' in the message subject or body.
======================================================================
Once again, step by step, in short:
You probably know your own news system better than me, so these detailed descriptions may be unnecessary. If you know how to do most of things, use this short 'checklist' instead:- Contact the news administrator at the other end and get the feed for pl.* groups
- Add all existing groups to the 'active' file
- Add groups' descriptions to your 'newsgroups' file
- Add these 2 lines to the control.ctl file:
newgroup:newgroup@usenet.pl:pl.*:doit=newgroup rmgroup:newgroup@usenet.pl:pl.*:doit=rmgroupFor PGP-verification of control messages see comments at the end of this document.
- Add this line to the 'moderators' file:
pl.*:%s@usenet.pl - Check the expiration policy for all 'normal' groups, and if possible - try respecting the 'Expires:' headers in pl.answers group by putting 'never' or '60' in the last field of entry in expire.ctl file.
- Modify your 'newsfeeds' file to feed all the pl.* groups back, so the articles posted by your users will be transferred to other servers.
- Send a test posting to pl.test and check whether you receive a reply by e-mail from an autoresponder.
- If your usenet neighbours want to get pl.* groups, send them this
'starter kit' or point them to the newest version. There should
be a copy in news.answers,
news.admin.hierarchies,
pl.answers and pl.news.admin at *your* server, but if
not, you may always get one from:
http://www.usenet.pl/doc/news-pl-new-site-faq.html
That's all.
Now is the time for...
Questions...
What are the pl.* groups anyway?
The pl.* news hierarchy holds Polish national groups. They sometimes
mirror similar groups in the big-eight hierarchy (with the exception,
that in pl.* groups the most used language is Polish), but some are
very specific.
Is there any 'checkgroups' message for pl.* groups?
Yes, there is. It gets posted automatically once every two months
(starting on January 1st), so you should not see it very frequently.
In addition you may get the list of pl.* groups in the
'newsgroups' file format from the locations described above and
feed it to the 'docheckgroups' program.
Should I be concerned about large volume of articles in binary
sub-hierarchies?
No. There are no binary groups under the pl.* hierarchy and there are
none planned. Any binary postings sent to pl.* are usually dealt with
by friendly cancelbots.
What about PGP-signed control messages?
Yep, the control messages requesting creation or removal of groups in
the pl.* hierarchy are already PGP-signed. Of course, if your server
does not support checking of PGP signatures in control messages,
you have to trust the 'From:' headers. innd versions 1.5.1 and later
support PGP control messages by default, so you just have to uncomment
appropriate lines in the control.ctl file, as they are
commented-out by default. The public PGP key for these messages
(ie. the key for pl.announce.newgroups) is included in the innd 1.5.1
config files and can be also found here:
pub 1024/838AF8ED 1996/05/31 pl.announce.newgroups
sig 838AF8ED pl.announce.newgroups
You may also send email to pgp-public-keys@pgp.ai.mit.edu
with "GET 0x838AF8ED" in the Subject: field and empty message body.
The corrected control.ctl lines should be as follows:
newgroup:newgroup@usenet.pl|michalj@*fuw.edu.pl:pl.*:verify-pl.announce.newgroups rmgroup:newgroup@usenet.pl|michalj@*fuw.edu.pl:pl.*:verify-pl.announce.newgroupsThey are not set as a default for innd 1.5.1, so you need to comment out 'old' newgroup/rmgroup files and copy the above ones.
For more information on checking PGP-signed control messages, see
ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/misc/pgpcontrol/README.html or
ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/misc/pgpcontrol/README.
Whether or not you do a PGP validation of control messages, the
addresses they are sent from are the same as mentioned above (in the
control.ctl section).
If you have any comments on the above procedure or my description, or if you find any errors, etc., please do tell me, so I can improve it.
Tomasz R. Surmacz (tsurmacz@adm.usenet.pl, tsurmacz@ict.pwr.wroc.pl), 22.11.2005
RCSid: $Id: news-pl-new-site-faq.html,v 2.6 2005/11/22 03:00:16 tsurmacz Exp $