Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!clyde!cuae2!ihnp4!uniq!rjnoe
From: rjnoe@uniq.UUCP (Roger J. Noe)
Newsgroups: news.software.b,news.admin
Subject: Bug in moderated groups handling?
Message-ID: <221@uniq.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Dec-86 16:33:18 EST
Article-I.D.: uniq.221
Posted: Wed Dec 17 16:33:18 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Dec-86 22:50:08 EST
Organization: Uniq Digital Technologies, Batavia, IL
Lines: 78
Keywords: rnews 2.11 mod.politics
Xref: mnetor news.software.b:110 news.admin:75

As USENET administrator at this site I got some mail sent back from the local
backbone that looks like it points to a 2.11 rnews bug in the way moderated
newsgroups are handled.  Here's the mail:

> From postmaster  Tue Dec 16 18:13:57 1986 remote from ihnp4
> From: ihnp4!postmaster
> Full-Name: Mail Delivery Subsystem
> Subject: Returned mail: User unknown
> Received: by ihnp4.ATT.COM id AA08036; 16 Dec 86 18:13:57 CST (Tue)
> To: uniq!news
> 
>    ----- Transcript of session follows -----
> 550 mod-politics... User unknown
> 
>    ----- Unsent message follows -----
> From: uniq!news
> Received: by ihnp4.ATT.COM id AA08015; 16 Dec 86 18:13:57 CST (Tue)
> Date: 16 Dec 86 23:18:43 GMT
> To: mod-politics
> Subject: Submission for mod-politics
> Responding-System: uniq.UUCP
> 
> Path: uniq!ihnp4!dual!paul
> From: paul@dual.UUCP (Baker)
> Newsgroups: mod.politics
> Subject: Re: Reply to Rich Cowan
> Summary: More Libertarian bullshit
> Message-ID: <1353@dual.UUCP>
> Date: 16 Dec 86 16:16:41 GMT
> References: <12263063217.2.MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Organization: Dual Systems, Berkeley, CA
> Lines: 14
(I've deleted the body of the article for brevity; it did not look munged in
any way.)

Here's what was in LIBDIR/log for this time (there may have been a "Newsgroups
in active, but not sys" message in here - I delete all such lines daily from
both the log and errlog):

Dec 16 17:18	ihnp4	received <1353@dual.UUCP> ng mod.politics subj 'Re: Reply to Rich Cowan' from paul@dual.UUCP (Baker)
Dec 16 17:19	ihnp4	Article mailed to ihnp4!mod-politics

I also noted the Message-ID <1353@dual.UUCP> did not get into LIBDIR/history.
Somehow rnews got to thinking that this article was posted locally or something
like that.  We do have SPOOLNEWS #defined, so maybe that has something to do
with it (this would of course have been when rnews -U was running).  Now we
do receive several mod.* groups by the way the local site line of the sys file
is set up, but mod.politics is not one of them.  For the ones we do receive,
we actually get articles correctly installed there.  I have verified that for
other mod.* groups we don't receive (not in our line of LIBDIR/sys), they get
tossed into junk.  I don't think anyone at this site has tried posting to
a mod.* group since we've installed 2.11 news (and we do have the first
patch in, by the way).  Here's the line from the LIBDIR/active file:

mod.politics 00001 00001 m

and mod.politics doesn't appear in LIBDIR/aliases.  Here's LIBDIR/mailpaths:

backbone	ihnp4!%s
internet	ihnp4!%s

Which also looks right, assuming ihnp4 has mail aliases for moderated groups
(it sort of looks like it doesn't).  And here's the outgoing news line from our
LIBDIR/sys file:

ihnp4:world,na,usa,il,chi,to.ihnp4,net,comp,misc,news,rec,sci,soc,talk:L:

Which probably doesn't matter anyway; I just wanted to note that "mod" groups
don't appear in the line to the backbone site.

This is a PDP-11/44 running UNIX System V Release 2.0.  I'll try digging into
the code to see what's happening, but likely someone experienced in looking at
rnews will find and fix this before I can post a solution.  Please contact me
if I can supply more details to clarify the situation.
	Roger Noe			ihnp4!uniq!rjnoe
	Uniq Digital Technologies	rjnoe@uniq.UUCP
	28 South Water Street		+1 312 879 1566
	Batavia, Illinois  60510	41:50:58 N.  88:18:35 W.