Version A Versus Version B - Sun Microsystems Sun Workstation 100U System Manager's Manual

USENET Installation and Maintenance Differences between Version 2.9 and 2.10
Archiving
Expire used to automatically archive news in leur/,poolloltlneUJI if that directory existed;
it now archives news only if you supply the
-&
option.
Sharing News Software
When you connect to a new site, you must now send a copy of your active file, so that the
appropriate newsgroup directories and active file can
be built. This was not necessary in 2.9
because unrecognized incoming newsgroups were automatically created, but they are thrown
away in 2.10.
New Programs
Some new programs have been added to /u,rlliblneUJI. These include recmail and cae'tlr.
Recmail takes a mail message on stdin, figures out who the To: and Cc: lines refer to, and
invokes Ibin/mail with those arguments (not changed) and with the file on stdin. Recmtlil
is used by the reply command. Cae,ar decodes rotated jokes; it can also
be used to create
rotated jokes.
New Mail Batching Provisions
Version 2.10 has some experimental batching provisions in it. See the btltela and tlnbate"
programs, and the F and U options in the
'III
file, for more details. All this is very new, and
while it appears to run satisfactorily, caution is advised in installing batching software.
You must also make sure your neighbor is prepared to receive batched news; this is nor-
mally true if the neighbor is running at least 2.10.
8. Version A Versus Version B
Version B automatically understands incoming news in either version A or B format. Version B
generates either format, depending on the flag in the third field of the description line of the
'11'
file. Thus, it would be possible for two version B sites to communicate using version A format
- though it would not be a good idea, since the translation from B to A results in a permanent
loss or some header inrormation (such as expiration date).
Version A does not understand version B rormat.
News from versions A and 2.9 B do not conrorm to the USENET interchange standard. 2.10
supports the standard and will communicate with either A or 2.9 B news. 2.10 will write out
headers with both standard (Date, Message-ID) and 2.9 (Posted, Article-I.D.) lines so that either
B system will properly handle the article. Incoming news is recognized by the first letter ("AU
for A news), or the lack or an
"@"
in the From line (2.9). Missing fields are constructed as well
as possible rrom the available information.
7 January 1984 9