ANU-News ANU-News V6.1B9 Release Notes

We are glad to announce the availability of a new version of ANU-NEWS, V6.1B9. ANU-NEWS is a Usenet news server and client software running under OpenVMS on VAX and AXP platforms using various vendor TCP/IP transport packages or DECnet.

The version ANU-NEWS V6.1B9 is compatible with the V6.1B8 with respect to the database files used. You can switch between the two versions back and forth at any time. The accompanying NNTP utilities are compatible as well and any mixture of B8 and B9 NNTP servers and NEWS program should work.

As the whole V6.1 BETA range of versions use the same format of database files the upgrade should not cause problems. Make sure that the systemwide logical names are defined in /EXECUTIVE mode since this is enforced from version V6.1B8 onwards.

The most important changes from ANU-NEWS V6.1B8 to the current B9 release are the following:

• new and thorough documentation is now available on setting up and maintaining the news site -- see file SETUP_DOCS.COM which will help you to format the document. It is available in the ZIP archive with the rest of the documentation.
• compiles under DECC and runs on AXP,
  compiles under VAXC and runs on VAX
• rewritten article-header parsing code (executed during ADD FILE) to resolve problems with very long header lines and with too widely crossposted articles. Crosspostings may now be limited by two compile-time options (see NEWSSITE.H).
• NNTP_TCPUCXM no longer dies on articles with very long lines
• more optimal file performance of the NNTP servers
• much tightened error checking, more informative error reporting, better handling of unexpected errors (controlled to some degree by a new qualifier /ON_ERROR -- see HELP)
• application-specific memory management routines which try to handle virtual memory shortage (page file quota too small) more gracefully
• in addition to the "NEWSRC." file the ".newsrc" file format is supported (controlled by the qualifier /DOTNEWSRC -- see HELP)
• XOVER command (for obtaining item headers) in the NNTP protocol is used if ANU-NEWS runs as a client and the remote server supports it. This speeds up the NNTP interaction.
• ADD FILE can now produce some statistics, see ADD FILE/STATISTICS in HELP. ADD FILE log file can now be limited to contain reports on problem articles only, see ADD FILE/LOG in HELP.
• anonymous usage logging supported -- logging will be done by ACCOUNT field instead of username -- controlled by the logical name NEWS_USAGE_ANONYMOUS (use $ DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXECUTIVE NEWS_USAGE_ANONYMOUS 1 )
• numerous bugs fixed (and some new ones introduced :-} )

Some unresolved items:

• user documentation is not yet finished (this is the main reason why ANU-NEWS releases are still called BETA; if you are still running V6.0-3 it might be a good idea to upgrade)
• does not compile under gcc
• NEWSBUILD.COM has a small problem with coping with DEBUG/NODEBUG parameter (p3). You are adviced to run NEWSBUILD.COM for the first time without the third parameter (which is equivalent to "BOTH" and produces both the normal and the debug code in separate libraries and separate executables).
• UCXSOCKETS not tested, use of UCXQIO is recommended under UCX

Availability:

• the originals are located at the anonymous ftp server kuhub.cc.ukans.edu and are available in the directory [.anu_v61b9]
• the following ftp mirror sites are available:

  North America:

  genetics.upenn.edu under [.anu_news.distribution]

  Europe(Slovenia):

  ftp.arnes.si under /software/VMS/anu-news/

  Canada:

  mailserver access only via mrcserv@mtroyal.ab.ca

• the ANU-NEWS V6.1B9 distribution consists of three ZIP archives:

  news_v61-beta9_src.zip

  the complete sources that should be unpacked into the [.NEWS_SRC] directory

  news_v61-beta9_dist.zip

  some support DCL procedures and precompiled code (MULTINET, OpenVMS 5.5-2, AXP 1.5)

  news_v61-beta9_doc.zip

  the documentation (except for the new site setup manual the rest of the documentation is old and applies to V6.0-3)

  If you do not already have UNZIP on your system the program UNZIP.EXE (code for VAX and AXP) is available in the same directory with the archives. Make sure you use binary mode for file transfer.

Installation:

• obtain the three ZIP archives (actually only news_*_src.zip is essential for existing installations)
• UNZIP the archives into subdirectories [.NEWS_SRC], [.NEWS_DIST] and [.NEWS_DOC]. Create an empty [.NEWS_BUILD] subdirectory.
• read the setup manual before building News; it has advice about running NEWSBUILD.COM, looking at parameters in NEWSSITE.H, etc.
• go into the [.NEWS_SRC] subdirectory, read comments in NEWSBUILD.COM and run this procedure with appropriate parameters, e.g.
  $ @NEWSBUILD MULTINET
• join the Usenet forum of anu-news users and developers in the newsgroup: news.software.anu-news or the mailing list: anu-news@vm1.nodak.edu
• may the Force be with you