[inn] How to have more than one server

[inn] How to have more than one server

[Harry Putnam]

I'm making a first brush at setting up inn for local use.
So far just following the basic conf suggested in inn.conf man page.

I didn't see a handy way to pull news from more than one server.
My regular server is enews.newsguy.com, but I'd also like to pull some
groups from news.gmane.org.

I don't actually have anything running yet.  Just exploring
possibilities.

Is it no more than a line that says:
server some.server some.other.server

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Jens Müller]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> I'm making a first brush at setting up inn for local use.
> So far just following the basic conf suggested in inn.conf man page.
>
> I didn't see a handy way to pull news from more than one server.
> My regular server is enews.newsguy.com, but I'd also like to pull some
> groups from news.gmane.org.

What functionality would you like to have in Gnus that could help you
with that problem?

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Harry Putnam]

Jens Müller <jens@unfaehig.de> writes:

> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>
>> I'm making a first brush at setting up inn for local use.
>> So far just following the basic conf suggested in inn.conf man page.
>>
>> I didn't see a handy way to pull news from more than one server.
>> My regular server is enews.newsguy.com, but I'd also like to pull some
>> groups from news.gmane.org.
>
> What functionality would you like to have in Gnus that could help you
> with that problem?

Is this a general quiz, or is there a comment here somewhere?

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Kevin Falcone]

>>>>> "HP" == Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

HP> I didn't see a handy way to pull news from more than one server.
HP> My regular server is enews.newsguy.com, but I'd also like to pull some
HP> groups from news.gmane.org.

INN does not pull.  Your peers push you news that INN then takes and
files.  So, unless you can arrange to have newsguy or gmane peer with
you, INN won't work like that.  I use slrnpull to suck news off a
server, and then read it with nnspool.  If you want a news server, you
could use Leafnode, which I know a number of people here use.  I use
INN at home, but then I run a real news server, and can arrange
peering.

-kevin

-- 
"Experience is recognizing what didn't work last time either." - Anon.

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[frank paulsen]

Kevin Falcone <kevin@jibsheet.com> writes:

>>>>>> "HP" == Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>
> HP> I didn't see a handy way to pull news from more than one server.
> HP> My regular server is enews.newsguy.com, but I'd also like to pull some
> HP> groups from news.gmane.org.
>
> INN does not pull.  

there is suck: http://www.sucknews.org/

-- 
frobnicate foo

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Harry Putnam]

Kevin Falcone <kevin@jibsheet.com> writes:

>>>>>> "HP" == Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>
> HP> I didn't see a handy way to pull news from more than one server.
> HP> My regular server is enews.newsguy.com, but I'd also like to pull some
> HP> groups from news.gmane.org.
>
> INN does not pull.  Your peers push you news that INN then takes and
> files.  So, unless you can arrange to have newsguy or gmane peer with
> you, INN won't work like that.  I use slrnpull to suck news off a
> server, and then read it with nnspool.  If you want a news server, you
> could use Leafnode, which I know a number of people here use.  I use
> INN at home, but then I run a real news server, and can arrange
> peering.

Ahh.... thanks.  I had gotten the idea over the years on this list
that inn was used by some readers as a way to pull and control news
on disk, in some similar way as leafnode, suck, slrnpull do. 

Thanks for clearing that up.
The documentation with inn is massive, but doesn't really contain an
overview that explains explicitly what it does or can do.  At least
not in language I understood.  The INSTALL file alone is some
1200 lines, and there are 82 manpages. 

So I can shake off the already induced trauma of digging into that... hehe.

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Russ Allbery]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> Thanks for clearing that up.  The documentation with inn is massive, but
> doesn't really contain an overview that explains explicitly what it does
> or can do.  At least not in language I understood.  The INSTALL file
> alone is some 1200 lines, and there are 82 manpages.

INN really isn't targetted for the small user or for someone not already
very familiar with news.  I'd like to increase its friendliness, but it's
difficult to do and requires a bunch of infrastructure improvements.

Many individual users are probably better off with something considerably
smaller, like leafnode.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Jorge Godoy]

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Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu> writes:

> Many individual users are probably better off with something considerably
> smaller, like leafnode.

If you need that, I have made RPM packages. Drop me a message if you
want them. 


See you,
- -- 
Godoy. <godoy@conectiva.com>

Escritório de Projetos		-- 	  Conectiva S.A.
Projects Office			--	  Conectiva Inc.
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Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Harry Putnam]

Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu> writes:

> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>
>> Thanks for clearing that up.  The documentation with inn is massive, but
>> doesn't really contain an overview that explains explicitly what it does
>> or can do.  At least not in language I understood.  The INSTALL file
>> alone is some 1200 lines, and there are 82 manpages.
>
> INN really isn't targetted for the small user or for someone not already
> very familiar with news.  I'd like to increase its friendliness, but it's
> difficult to do and requires a bunch of infrastructure improvements.
>
> Many individual users are probably better off with something considerably
> smaller, like leafnode.

Hello Russ, I saw your name figured prominently in the documentation.
Just the INSTALL file alone looks like it was a major piece of work.
I fully understand now, how something with this much too it would be
quite difficult to present in a `friendly' way.  And don't envy you
the task one little bit.

It might forstall other dummies like me, if the FAQ (in the overview
section) were to say point blank.  That inn isn't for the faint of
heart and not for light news downloading.  I didn't really get that
message from reading the overview.  Maybe just unfamiliar with the
terms used there.

Jorge Godoy <godoy@conectiva.com> writes:

[...]

> If you need that, I have made RPM packages. Drop me a message if you
> want them. 

Thanks for the offer.  Only problem I have with leafnode.  (And I
don't have it running) is that it wants to second guess what gets
downloaded based on usage.  Is it still the case that you have to
trick it into downloading stuff you don't actually read as news?

I want to just say download these groups, put them in a newsrc or
something and thats that, no tricky heuristics or the like.

Suck can do that, but lacks much in the way of interface to newsrc.
It wants an active file from HOST, and actually expects inn
configuration files.  Although it doesn't depend on them.

Last time I got involved with suck, I wrote shell scripts to convert
gnus .newsrc so it would update the one suck uses.  But lost track of
all that and didn't want to redo it.  It would take rewriting anyway
since it was doing quite a lot more.

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Kevin Falcone]

>>>>> "HP" == Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

HP> I want to just say download these groups, put them in a newsrc or
HP> something and thats that, no tricky heuristics or the like.

slrnpull does this.  I have /var/spool/neu/slrnpull.conf which lists
groups I want to read.  /var/spool/news is a symlink to
/var/spool/neu/news and I have two cron jobs, one to periodically
download news and one each day to expire.  slrnpull wants inews to
post, but I have a little shell script which tricks it into putting
things into the out.going directory for slrnpull to post later.

This was my setup for at least 4 years until I installed INN locally
as a precursor to upgrading a production box.

However, this means you use nnspool and not nntp as your select
method, as you'll be reading right out of the filesystem.

-kevin

-- 
It is ridiculous claiming that video games influence children. For
instance, if Pac-man affected kids born in the eighties, we should by
now have a bunch of teenagers who run around in darkened rooms and eat
pills while listening to monotonous electronic music.

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Harry Putnam]

Kevin Falcone <kevin@jibsheet.com> writes:

>>>>>> "HP" == Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>
> HP> I want to just say download these groups, put them in a newsrc or
> HP> something and thats that, no tricky heuristics or the like.
>
> slrnpull does this.  I have /var/spool/neu/slrnpull.conf which lists
> groups I want to read.  /var/spool/news is a symlink to
> /var/spool/neu/news and I have two cron jobs, one to periodically
> download news and one each day to expire.  slrnpull wants inews to
> post, but I have a little shell script which tricks it into putting
> things into the out.going directory for slrnpull to post later.
>
> This was my setup for at least 4 years until I installed INN locally
> as a precursor to upgrading a production box.
>
> However, this means you use nnspool and not nntp as your select
> method, as you'll be reading right out of the filesystem.

Hello Kevin,
An overambitious spam filter trapped you reply.  I've adjusted it now.
Thanks for the input.

I've also used slrnpull quite a while back, and gave up on it after
some months.  I don't really remember why now, but maybe the lack of
an interface for updating .newsrc or something.  Or maybe it was the
inability to easily post immediately on demand. For one reason or
another it seemed easier and more economical to just use gnus-agent.

But as I mentioned, there always seems to be hassles that way too.  I
had that inews gimmick for posting too, but have long ago lost track of it.

May be time for a retry. If you have time can you send me the script
privately?

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Reiner Steib]

On Thu, Mar 21 2002, Harry Putnam wrote:

> Thanks for the offer.  Only problem I have with leafnode.  (And I
> don't have it running) is that it wants to second guess what gets
> downloaded based on usage.  Is it still the case that you have to
> trick it into downloading stuff you don't actually read as news?
>
> I want to just say download these groups, put them in a newsrc or
> something and thats that, no tricky heuristics or the like.

Try one of those:

,----[ fetchnews(8) ]
|  -n     Don't unlink files in the interesting.groups direc­
|         tory. This avoids automatic unsubscription of news­
|         groups.
`----

,----[ /etc/leafnode/config ]
| ## timeout_long determines how many days fetch will wait before not
| ## getting an unread newsgroup any more. The default is seven days.
| timeout_long = 36500
`----

Are 100 years long enough? ;-)

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo--- PGP key available via WWW   http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Harry Putnam]

Reiner Steib <4uce.02.r.steib@gmx.net> writes:

Thanks Reiner

[...]

> ,----[ /etc/leafnode/config ]
> | ## timeout_long determines how many days fetch will wait before not
> | ## getting an unread newsgroup any more. The default is seven days.
> | timeout_long = 36500
> `----
>
> Are 100 years long enough? ;-)

If I continue to use the now out-of-print longevity.el, it might not
be, but who knows how long it will be compatible? ...

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Karl Kleinpaste]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 366 bytes --]

As others have observed, you external support to do what you want.

I use suck; in fact, I use a very old version, just because I don't
want to have to hassle with building it when what I have works just
fine.

Below are the two scripts I use for sucking news in to my systems and
then for doing remote posting.  Run them out of cron regularly.
Embellish to taste.


[-- Attachment #2: suck.sh --]
[-- Type: application/x-sh, Size: 988 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #3: rpost.sh --]
[-- Type: application/x-sh, Size: 993 bytes --]

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Harry Putnam]

Karl Kleinpaste <karl@charcoal.com> writes:

> As others have observed, you external support to do what you want.
>
> I use suck; in fact, I use a very old version, just because I don't
> want to have to hassle with building it when what I have works just
> fine.
>
> Below are the two scripts I use for sucking news in to my systems and
> then for doing remote posting.  Run them out of cron regularly.
> Embellish to taste.

I do know about suck, and have used it in this way.  Thanks for the
scripts. I have some sort of similar ones from a time when I ran suck
and piped it thru procmail, onward into nnml groups.  It sort of
worked but had some problems I got sick of and scrapped the project.
Always interesting to see how someone else does it.

One of the things that got me thinking inn would do something similar
is that suck expects inn to be present, and to have created an history
file.  Has other provisions that rely or at least cater to inn.  Not
that it doesn't work by itself.  It does, but it wasn't clear in your
post if you use suck in conjunction with inn or standalone. 

Re: [inn] How to have more than one server

[Karl Kleinpaste]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> is that suck expects inn to be present, and to have created an history
> file.  Has other provisions that rely or at least cater to inn.

My use of suck itself expects only that rnews is present; whether
that's INN's or C News' (or even B News'), the script doesn't care.
As for the history file, I use the -H option to ignore the history
file, because history checks don't matter when sucking a limited feed
from a single site.

On the other hand, my rpost.sh expects to have ctlinnd around, in
order to flush the outgoing queue properly.

> It does, but it wasn't clear in your post if you use suck in
> conjunction with inn or standalone.

I use INN, but it's mostly incidental as regards feed management.