Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site munnari.OZ Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!munnari!kre From: kre@munnari.OZ (Robert Elz) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Missing news in the new "mod" groups Message-ID: <1001@munnari.OZ> Date: Tue, 5-Nov-85 17:02:26 EST Article-I.D.: munnari.1001 Posted: Tue Nov 5 17:02:26 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 7-Nov-85 06:35:29 EST Organization: Comp Sci, Melbourne Uni, Australia Lines: 49 There are problems with the format of articles being posted to the new "mod" groups. (Those that replaced the old "fa" groups). Erik has set things up so that the "Path" line has a reasonable chance of being a valid mail address of the poster of the article (so a news "r" command has a pretty good chance of getting to the person who sent the article, just like news in the "net" groups). That's a semi-admirable thing to have attempted to do - I'm not convinced its really right - the Path line is NOT meant to be used as a mail address, its a list of sites that have received this news item, and hence, to which it need not be sent again. By now, some of you might have detected the problem. If you have been reading "mod.computers.sequent" you will have seen John Quarterman's attempts to post to that group. In fact, everybody should have seen them except John (and others at im4u). This explains the slightly strange nature of those postings. The problem is that Berkeley is supplying a Path line that begins Path: ucbvax!im4u.utexas.edu!jsq which is a good mail address to return mail to John. But the news code sees that, and says "Aha - this news has been to im4u already, I don't need to send it there", and it doesn't! Naturally, any sites that im4u feeds will also miss the news. This is likely to happen to any news sent to one of these groups. That is, you are never likely to see your own postings (unless the "news" name of your system is different from its standard "mail" name). Postings from uucp sites may be affected worse - I haven't noticed one yet to check. Here, its possible that your uucp neighbours (on the way to the arpa gateway) may also not see the posting. If this does happen, then large parts of usenet may miss it. I have reported this problem (via mail) to Erik, I expect that some means will be found to correct the problem. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) this will most likely mean breaking mail to the Path line, and returning it to its proper use as a list of usenet sites that have seen the article. Robert Elz ..!seismo!munnari!kre kre%munnari.oz@seismo.css.gov