4 Setting Up News As An NNTP Client Only

4.2 Setting up the News logical name environment

In order to provide site-specific information to News, the following logical names need to be defined. You will probably want to put these definitions into a DCL procedure to be executed manually now, and as part of system startup in the future. Several of these logical names are considered 'secure' by News, that is, News will use only translations obtained in accordance with the rules specified in NewsSite.H for secure logical name translation. This is indicated in the explanation of each logical name.

4.2.1 News_Address

This logical name is used as the name of the local host when constructing mail addresses, and when checking whether the current user is allowed access to or moderator privileges for a newsgroup. The rules for translating secure logical names are followed when attempting to translate News_Address. If this is not successful, the translation obtained for News_Node as specified below is used.

4.2.2 News_GMT_Offset

This logical name specifies the offset of your local time from GMT (UTC), as a string with the format hh:mm:ss, and its translation is used in converting between GMT in headers and local time. The string may begin with '+' or '-', indicating whether the offset should be added to or subtracted from UTC to obtain the local time; if the sign is absent, '+' is assumed. This logical name is normally defined in the system logical name table, although translation is via the normal lookup process, so definitions in the process, job, or group logical name table are used in preference to the system-wide value.

4.2.3 News_HelpLib (optional)

If this logical name is defined, it must translate to the file specification of the help library for News commands. When looking for its help library, News first tries to open the library specified by News_HelpLib. If this fails, it then looks for a library named News.Hlb, first in News_Root (which is generally not defined on a system which operates only as a NNTP client), then in Sys$Help, and finally in the same directory as News.Exe. This logical name is normally defined in the system logical name table, although translation is via the normal lookup process, so definitions in the process, job, or group logical name table are used in preference to the system-wide value.

4.2.4 News_Locked_Command

When you run NewsShutdown.Exe, if it successfully obtains an exclusive lock on the News resource, it spawns a subprocess and passes the translation of this logical name to the subprocess to be executed as a DCL command. Translation of this logical name is via the normal lookup process, and it is usually defined in the process table just before executing NewsShutDown.Exe.

In general, NewsShutDown.Exe will not be used on a system running only as an NNTP client, since it does not have a local News database. However, it may be useful on occasions when you need to prevent users from running News for some other reason.

4.2.5 News_Locked_Wait_Minutes

After NewsShutDown.Exe enqueues the request for an exclusive lock on the News database, it will wait for the number of minutes specified by the translation of this logical name before giving up and exiting with the status SS$_CANCEL, without executing News_Locked_Command. If this logical name is not defined, then NewsShutDown.Exe will wait one minute before giving up. Translation of this logical name is via the normal lookup process, and it is usually defined in the process table just before executing NewsShutDown.Exe.

4.2.6 News_Manager

This logical name should translate to the name of the directory in which News.Exe and its ancillary files reside. When attempting to translate this logical name, the rules for translation of secure logical names are used.

4.2.7 News_Mgr_ID

This logical name should translate to the name of the rights identifier granted to News managers to allow them management privileges. When attempting to translate this logical name, the rules for translation of secure logical names are used.

4.2.8 News_NetPost (optional)

If this logical name is defined, its translation is used as the name of a rights identifier which, when held by a user, indicates that the user is allowed to post items to network newsgroups, regardless of whether that user also holds the identifier specified by News_NoNetPost. When attempting to translate this logical name, the rules for translation of secure logical names are used.

4.2.9 News_NNTP_Protocol

This logical name should translate to the name of the transport protocol you specified when compiling News. The syntax for transport names is identical to that used with the /NetProtocol qualifier to the News command. When choosing the transport protocol to use for a given session, News uses the following order of precedence: This logical name is normally defined in the system logical name table, although translation is via the normal lookup process, so definitions in the process, job, or group logical name table are used in preference to the system-wide value.

4.2.10 News_NNTP_Server

This logical name should translate to the name of the NNTP server you plan to use as your default server. If you're using DECnet as the transport protocol, then this should be the DECnet nodename, or the node number in the format area*1024+node (area*1024 is optional if the server is in the same area as your system). If you're using TCP, then this should be the host name of the server, or its IP address in dotted decomal form. When choosing the server to which to connect for a given session, News uses the following order of precedence: This logical name is normally defined in the system logical name table, although translation is via the normal lookup process, so definitions in the process, job, or group logical name table are used in preference to the system-wide value.

4.2.11 News_Node

This logical name specifies the Usenet name for the local node, and is used to identify it in Usenet headers (e.g. Relay-Version:, X-News:). In addition, it serves as a default value for the name of the local host in Path: headers if News_Pathname is not defined, and in mail addresses if News_Address is not defined. If this logical name is undefined, another logical name may be used, depending on the NNTP transport you specified when building News:
NNTP transport:
Logical Names (in order checked):
Multinet
Multinet_SMTP_Host_Name
Multinet_Host_Name
TCPware
TCPware_SMTP_From_Domain
TCPware_DomainName
UCX
UCX$Inet_Host
Wollongong
ARPANet_Host_Name
All
Internet_Host_Name
Sys$Cluster_Node
Sys$Node
Attempts to obtain a translation for this logical name and any of its fallbacks follow the rules for secure logical names. Finally, if no logical name is found, News prints an error message and exits.

4.2.12 News_NoNetPost (optional)

If this logical name is defined, its translation is used as the name of a rights identifier which, when held by a user, indicates that the user is not allowed to post items to network newsgroups. When attempting to translate this logical name, the rules for translation of secure logical names are used.

4.2.13 News_Organisation (or News_Organization) (optional)

If this logical name is defined, its translation is used in constructing the Organization: header of outgoing items. This logical name is normally defined in the system logical name table, although translation is via the normal lookup process, so definitions in the process, job, or group logical name table are used in preference to the system-wide value.

4.2.14 News_Pathname (optional)

If this logical name is defined, its translation is used as the name for this site in Path: headers, instead of the translation of News_Node. When attempting to translate this logical name, the rules for translation of secure logical names are used.

4.2.15 News_Post_CC (optional)

It some cases, when an item is posted into a particular newsgroup, it is useful to mail a copy to certain email addresses (e.g. a mailing list). If you wish to do this, you should create a file in the format specified for News_Manager:News_Post.CC (described in the section on configuration files in the News server setup section), and define the logical News_Post_CC to point to this file. (The file News_Manager:News_Post.CC is not itself used when posting as a client.) Note that the file to which News_Post_CC points supersedes the user's private file Sys$Login:News_Post.CC, if it exists. Note also that News_Post_CC is translated using the normal sequence of logical name tables and access modes, so a process-private definition will supersede a system-wide one.

4.2.16 News_remhost_Task (optional)

When attempting to establish a DECnet connection to node remhost, News will try to translate the logical name News_remhost_Task (e.g. when connecting to node VIRGIL, News will try to translate News_VIRGIL_Task), and, if successful, will use this translation as the name of the DECnet task to which to connect. This logical name is normally defined in the system logical name table, although translation is via the normal lookup process, so definitions in the process, job, or group logical name table are used in preference to the system-wide value.

4.2.17 News_Stop (optional)

If this logical name is defined in the system logical name table in executive mode, then each currently active News and NNTP server session will exit when it finishes executing the current command (or after 30 minutes in any case), releasing any locks they may have held in the News index files. (Exception: Multithreaded NNTP servers will not respond to this logical name while hibernating between connections, so the server process may have to be stopped explicitly by the process which requires exclusive access to the News database.) This is an older method of obtaining exclusive access to the News database, and NewsShutDown.Exe is the preferred method of accomplishing this in the current release of News. For more information and an example of performing a task requiring exclusive access to the News database, see the section in this manual on optimizing News index files.

4.2.18 News_Timezone

This logical name specifies the time zone notation to be added to Date: headers of outgoing items. It should translate to a standard time zone abbreviation (e.g. EST, PDT) acceptable according to RFC822. If this logical name is undefined, depending on the NNTP transport you specified when you built News, the translation of the following logical name is used:
NNTP Transport:
Logical Names:
All
PMDF_Timezone
Multinet
Multinet_Timezone
TCPware
TCPware_Timezone
Wollongong
WIN$Time_Zone
These logical names are searched in the order given, and the search stops at the first match. If no appropriate logical name is defined, "GMT" is used as the time zone. This logical name is normally defined in the system logical name table, although translation is via the normal lookup process, so definitions in the process, job, or group logical name table are used in preference to the system-wide value.

4.2.19 News_Usage_Anonymous (optional)

If this logical name is defined, then all entries written to the usage log (see News_Usage_Log logical name below) do not contain the username. Instead, the value of the Account field of the SysUAF record for that username is used. When attempting to translate this logical name, the rules for translation of secure logical names are used.

4.2.20 News_Usage_Log (optional)

If this logical name is defined, its translation is used to specify a file to which a summary of each news session will be written. (News.Exe must have write access to the file, of course.) The summary contains the username (if News_Usage_Anonymous (q.v.) is not defined), the newsgroups accessed, and the number of items read and posted in each newsgroup. When attempting to translate this logical name, the rules for translation of secure logical names are used.

previous: 4.1 Generating the required files
next: 4.3 Setting up optional configuration files
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