ShareWare OnLine 2/ShareWare OnLine Volume 2 (CMS Software)(1993).iso/elecmail/faq00140.zip/FAQ00140.TXT

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Archive-name: usenet-software/part1πOriginal from: spaf@purdue (Gene Spafford)πLast-change: 26 Mar 1993 by spaf@purdue (Gene Spafford)πππCurrently, Usenet readers interact with the news using a number ofπsoftware packages and programs.  This article mentions the importantπones and a little of their history, gives pointers where you can lookπfor more information and ends with some special notes about "foreign"πand "obsolete" software.  At the very end is a list of sites from whichπcurrent versions of the Usenet software may be obtained.ππNote that the number of software packages available to run news,πespecially on PCs, is increasing.  This article lists only a few ofπthe many news packages available, and the presence or absence of anyπparticular software package should not be construed as indicatingπanything about its suitability usefulness.ππHistoryπ-------πUsenet came into being in late 1979, shortly after the release of V7πUnix with UUCP.  Two Duke University grad students in North Carolina,πTom Truscott and Jim Ellis, thought of hooking computers together toπexchange information with the Unix community.  Steve Bellovin, a gradπstudent at the University of North Carolina, put together the firstπversion of the news software using shell scripts and installed it onπthe first two sites: "unc" and "duke." At the beginning of 1980 theπnetwork consisted of those two sites and "phs" (another machine atπDuke), and was described at the January Usenix conference.  SteveπBellovin later rewrote the scripts into C programs, but they were neverπreleased beyond "unc" and "duke." Shortly thereafter, Steve Daniel didπanother implementation in C for public distribution.  Tom Truscott madeπfurther modifications, and this became the "A" news release.ππIn 1981 at U. C. Berkeley, grad student Mark Horton and high schoolπstudent Matt Glickman rewrote the news software to add functionalityπand to cope with the ever increasing volume of news -- "A" News wasπintended for only a few articles per group per day.  This rewrite wasπthe "B" News version.  The first public release was version 2.1 inπ1982; the 1.* versions were all beta test.  As the net grew, the newsπsoftware was expanded and modified.  The last version maintained andπreleased primarily by Mark was 2.10.1.ππRick Adams, at the Center for Seismic Studies, took over coordinationπof the maintenance and enhancement of the B News software with theπ2.10.2 release in 1984.  By this time, the increasing volume of newsπwas becoming a concern, and the mechanism for moderated groups wasπadded to the software at 2.10.2.  Moderated groups were inspired byπARPA mailing lists and experience with other bulletin board systems.πIn late 1986, version 2.11 of B News was released, including a numberπof changes to support a new naming structure for newsgroups, enhancedπbatching and compression, enhanced ihave/sendme control messages, andπother features.ππThe current release of B News is 2.11, patchlevel 19.  Article formatπis specified in RFC 1036 (see below).  B News has been declared "dead"πby a number of people, including Rick Adams, and is unlikely to beπupgraded further; most new UUCP sites are using C News (see nextπparagraph).ππA new version of news, known as C News, was developed at theπUniversity of Toronto by Geoff Collyer and Henry Spencer.  Thisπversion is a rewrite of the lowest levels of news to increase articleπprocessing speed, decrease article expiration processing and improveπthe reliability of the news system through better locking, etc.  Theπpackage was released to the net in the autumn of 1987.  For moreπinformation, see the paper "News Need Not Be Slow," published in TheπWinter 1987 Usenix Technical Conference proceedings.  The most recentπversion of C News is the 2 May 1992 "performance release."  C News canπbe obtained from its official archive site, cs.toronto.edu, using FTP.ππAnother Usenet system, known as InterNetNews, or INN, was written byπRich Salz <[e-mail]>.  INN is designed to run on Unix hostsπthat have a socket interface.  It is optimized for larger hosts whereπmost traffic uses NNTP, but it does provide full UUCP support.  INN isπvery fast, and since it integrates NNTP many people find it easier toπadminister only one package.  The package was publicly released onπAugust 20, 1992.  For more information, see the paper "InterNetNews:πUsenet Transport for Internet Sites" published in the June 1992 UsenixπTechnical Conference Proceedings.  INN can be obtained from manyπplaces; its official archive site is ftp.uu.net in the directoryπnetworking/news/nntp/inn.ππANU-NEWS is news package written by Geoff Huston of Australia for VMSπsystems.  ANU-NEWS is complete news system that allows reading,πposting, direct replies, moderated newsgroups, etc.  in a fashionπclosely related to regular news.  The implementation includes the RFCπ1036 news propagation algorithms and integrated use of the NNTPπprotocols (see below) to support remote news servers, implemented as aπVAX/VMS Decnet object.  An RFC 977 server implemented as a Decnetπobject is also included. ANU-NEWS currently includes support for theπfollowing TCP/IP protocols: MultiNet, CMU/TEK, Wollongong WIN/TCP, UCXπ(TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS), EXOS, and TCPware.  The ANU-NEWSπinterface is similar to standard DEC screen oriented systems.  Theπlicense for the software is free, and there are no restrictions on theπre-distribution.  For more info, contact [e-mail] (GeoffπHuston).  ANU-NEWS is available for FTP from kuhub.cc.ukans.edu.πContact [e-mail] for more info.ππA screen-oriented news client for VMS that works with CMU/tek, EXOS,πMultiNet, UCX, Wollongong and DECnet is also available via ftp fromπiraun1.ira.uka.de, info.rz.uni-ulm.de, and ftp.spc.edu (contact BerndπOnasch <[e-mail]> for details).ππA port of C News for the Commodore Amiga under AmigaDOS (NOT Unix), isπavailable.  The port was done by Frank J. Edwards <[e-mail]>,πand available from Larry Rosenman <[e-mail]>.  Also,πMatt Dillon <[e-mail]>, has greatly improved theπUUCP clone for AmigaDOS, currently V1.16D, available for ftp fromπftp.uu.net in /systems/amiga/dillon.  The package also includes aπnewsreader very loosely like the real rn.  Dillon also has a "vn" portπprovided by Eric Lee Green.  This software is also available on Bix,πand for ftp from wuarchive.wustl.edu (many other Amiga newsreaders areπalso available on theis ftp site).ππSeveral popular screen-oriented news reading interfaces have beenπdeveloped in the last few years to replace the traditional "readnews"πinterface.  The first of these was "vnews" and it was written byπKenneth Almquist.  "vnews" provides a "readnews"-like commandπinterface, but displays articles using direct screen positioning.  Itπappears to have been inspired, to some extent, by the "notes" systemπ(described below).  "vnews" is currently distributed with the standardπ2.11 news source.ππA second, more versatile interface, "rn", was developed by Larry Wallπ(the author of Perl) and released in 1984.  This interface also usesπfull-screen display with direct positioning, but it includes manyπother useful features and is very popular with many regular netπreaders.  The interface includes reading, discarding, and/orπprocessing of articles based on user-definable patterns, and theπability of the user to develop customized macros for display andπkeyboard interaction.  "rn" is currently at release 4.4.  It is beingπmaintained by Stan Barber of the Baylor College of Medicine.  "rn" isπnot provided with the standard news software release, but is veryπwidely available because of its popularity.  The software can beπobtained from its official archive site, lib.tmc.edu, using FTP, andπvia mail from [e-mail]ππA variant of "rn" is "trn" by Wayne Davison. Trn adds the ability toπfollow "threads of discussions" in newsgroups; its latest version 2.2πis based on rn 4.4. It uses a Reference-line database to allow theπuser to take advantage of the "discussion tree" formed by an articleπand its replies.  This results in a true reply-ordered reading of theπarticles, complete with a small ascii representation of the currentπarticle's position in the discussion tree. Trn can be obtained fromπftp.coe.montana.edu in the /pub/trn directory, from uunet in theπnews subdirectory, and from many other archive servers world-wide.ππxrn is an X11-based interface to NNTP that was written by RickπSpickelmier and Ellen Sentovich (UC Berkeley).  The current version isπ6.17.  xrn supports many features, including sorting by subject,πuser-settable key bindings, graceful handling of NNTP server crashes,πand many of the features of rn (including KILL files and key bindingsπsimilar to rn).  xrn is actively supported by the authors with bugπfixing and feature addition support from many of the users.  xrn canπbe retrieved from most of the popular FTP sites (gatekeeper.dec.com,πftp.uu.net, export.lcs.mit.edu).ππAnother X11-based newsreader is xvnews.  This is a news readerπdesigned primarily for Sun workstations running OpenWindows.  It runsπwith NNTP and is compatible with rn style commands. It is availableπfrom export.lcs.mit.edu in the contrib directory.ππThere are two popular macro packages named "GNUS" and "Gnews" that canπbe used with the GNU Emacs text editor.  These allow reading,πreplying, and posting interaction with the news from inside the Emacsπtext editor.  Client code exists to get the articles using NNTP ratherπthan from a local disk.  Copies can be found on most archive sitesπthat carry the GNU archives.ππ"nn" is yet another reader interface, developed by Kim F. Storm ofπTexas Instruments A/S, Denmark, and released in 1989.  nn differs fromπthe traditional readnews and vnews by presenting a menu of articleπsubject and sender-name lines, allowing you to preselect articles toπread.  nn is also a very fast newsreader, as it keeps a database ofπarticle headers on-line.  (I.e. it trades space for time.  A good ruleπof thumb is that the nn database size is 5%-10% of your news spool.πSo up to 110% of your news spool is the amount of space news and theπnn database will take.)  The current version of nn is 6.4.16.  nn canπbe obtained via anonymous FTP from dkuug.dk, uop.uop.edu, or variousπother sites; European sites should request the sources from theirπnearest backbone site.ππYet another newsreader is the "tin" reader.  It operates with threads,πhas different article organization methods, and is full-screenπoriented.  tin works on a local news spool or over an NNTP connection.πIt has been posted to alt.sources, and further information isπavailable from Iain Lea ([e-mail]). The currentπrelease of tin is 1.1 PL6.  Tin is based more on the Notes and tassπsystems than "rn".  There is an extensive list of features, includingπinterfaces to batch modes and auto unpacking mechanisms.ππIn March 1986 a package was released implementing news transmission,πposting, and reading using the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)π(as specified in RFC 977).  This protocol allows hosts to exchangeπarticles via TCP/IP connections rather than using the traditionalπuucp.  It also permits users to read and post news (using a modifiedπversion of "rn" or other user agents) from machines which cannot orπchoose not to install the USENET news software.  Reading and postingπare done using TCP/IP messages to a server host which does run theπUSENET software.  Sites which have many workstations like the Sun andπApollo products find this a convenient way to allow workstation usersπto read news without having to store articles on each system.  Many ofπthe Usenet hosts that are also on the Internet exchange news articlesπusing NNTP because the load impact of NNTP is much lower than uucpπ(and NNTP ensures much faster propagation).ππNNTP grew out of independent work in 1984-1985 by Brian Kantor at U.πC.  San Diego and Phil Lapsley at U. C. Berkeley.  It is now inπrelease 1.5.11 dated 11 february 1991, with the next planned releaseπat 1.6.  NNTP includes support for System V UNIX with Excelan Ethernetπcards and DECNET under Ultrix.  NNTP was developed at U. C. Berkeleyπby Phil Lapsley with help from Erik Fair, Steven Grady, and MikeπMeyer, among others.  The NNTP package is distributed on the 4.3BSDπrelease tape (although that is version 1.2a and out-of-date) and isπalso available from the various authors, many major hosts, and byπanonymous FTP from lib.tmc.edu, mthvax.cs.miami.edu and ftp.uu.net.ππReader NNTP clients for VMS are also available, including VMS/VNEWSπ(current release 1.4) and an upcoming reader only version of ANU-NEWS.πVMS/VNEWS is available via anonymous ftp from arizona.edu (contactπ[e-mail] for more information) or at any site which archivesπvmsnet.source.  Although the current release of ANU-NEWS is usable asπa reader it can be difficult when used with a UNIX server.ππAn NNTP newsreader for Macintoshs is available called HyperNews.  Itπis implemented as a HyperCard stack and depends on MacTCP.  It isπavailable from many Mac archives, including ftp.apple.com andπsumex-aim.stanford.eduππThere is also an NNTP-based netnews reader for Symbolics Lisp Machinesπ(under Genera 7) available for anonymous FTP from ucbvax.berkeley.eduπ[128.32.133.1] in pub/nntp-clients/lispm written by Ian Connollyπ<[e-mail]> and maintained by Richard Weltyπ<[e-mail]>.  In addition, another NNTP-based newsπbrowser is available running under Genera 7 and Genera 8.  It providesπmouse driven hierarchic browsing of newsgroups and articles, withπsupport for X11 servers on remote machines.  It is available forπanonymous FTP on flash.bellcore.com [128.96.32.20] in the directoryπpub/lispm/news-reader/.  It is written and maintained by PeterπClitherow <[e-mail]>ππA TOPS-20 reader was developed by Dave Edwards of SRIπ<[e-mail]>, but current availability is unknown.  An NNTP readerπsuite for PC's running MS-DOS and having Excelan boards is availableπfor ftp from ames.arc.nasa.gov; get the pcrrn files.  There are twoπMS-DOS news readers that can be obtained from bcm.tmc.edu in the "nfs"πdirectory.  They both require PC-NFS (from Sun) to work.  They willπboth work under PC/TCP from FTP Software early this year.  Source willπbe provided at that time.ππ"trumpet" is a NNTP based news reader for DOS which will also runπunder Windows (although only as a DOS application). There is LanπWorkplace version which is also available.  It works using theπClarkson Packet Drivers either over a Novell network or a PC with anπ'ordinary' TCP/IP connection. It offers a very intuitive interfaceπwith most of the basic facilities required in a newsreader (butπwithout some of the 'bells and whistles found in something like rn).πIt has facilities for using SMTP to forward/reply etc.  The latestπversion is 1.05g and is shareware available at most main ftp sites.ππDetails on several newsreadesr for systems running "Waffle" may beπfound in the FAQ posted to the comp.bbs.waffle newsgroup on a regularπbasis.  At least 3 different readers are available, and all can beπobtained via ftp and mailserver from halcyon.com (look inπ/pub/waffle/news). ππAt least one IBM VM/SP (CMS) version of the Usenet software isπavailable.  It is known as PSU NetNews, and it is maintained by LindaπLittleton ([e-mail]/psuvm.psu.edu).  Version 2.4 of theπsoftware is available from LISTSERV@PSUVM.  PSU NetNews supports onlyπ3270 terminals, and uses XEDIT as its screen driver.  Most major VMπsites appear to use this package.  NetNews supports locally-storedπnews, not NNTP reading.ππSince january 1993 a complete NNTP server is available for VM systems.πIt provides news reading, posting and feed processing compatible to theπUnix NNTP implementations.  The code is written in IBM's VM Rexx.πIt assumes that you already have installed PSU VM NETNEWS.  The VM NNTPπpackage, written by Kris Van Hees ([e-mail]) who alsoπtakes care of the maintenance.  The current version is 1.0.1 and requiresπIBM's FAL TCP/IP and Arty Ecock's RXSOCKET which is available from theπIBMTCP FIELLIST on listserv@pucc.  The VM NNTP package can be obtainedπfrom the NNTP PACKAGE on listserv@blekul11.ππThere is NNTP support for PSU NetNews for bulk news receipt: NNTPXFERπwill poll another site for news, and NNTPRCVR will receive news sentπfrom a Unix NNTPXMIT process.  Either program sends the news articlesπto NetNews for processing.  Contact Andy Hooper ([e-mail]πor qucdn.queensu.ca) for more information, or obtain them fromπlistserv@qucdn in PUBLIC FILELIST.  These programs are provided withπsource, and require IBM's FAL TCP/IP and Pascal.  An NNTPXMIT senderπthat works in cooperation with PSU NETNEWS is available from HermanπVan Uytven ([e-mail]).ππThere is at least one NNTP news-reader for VM using XEDIT as itsπscreen manager: NNR.  Contact Paul Campbell ([e-mail]) forπinformation.  The program requires IBM's FAL TCP/IP.  The software isπavailable for anonymous ftp from rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.deπ[129.69.1.12] in the directoryπsoft/kommunikation/news/beginner/software/vm-cms/*.ππAn NNTP news reader is available for TSO/ISPF, called NNMVS. NNMVS isπwritten by Stephen Bacher <[e-mail]> at DraperπLaboratory.  It requires C/370 V1R2 (though V1R1 will work) and usesπTCP/IP sockets.  It is now available via anonymous ftp atπftp.uni-stuttgart.de under the directoryπ/soft/kommunikation/news/beginner/software/nnmvs.  The current releaseπis Version 2 Release 3 Modification Level 1 (in pseudo-IBM parlance).πππSpecial note on "notes" and old versions of newsπ------------------------------------------------πUsers of these systems may note problems in their interactions with theπUsenet.  In particular, postings may be made by "notes" users toπmoderated groups but they will not usually propagate throughout theπentire Usenet.  The same may happen to users of old B news software.ππThe "notes" software package uses a different internal organization ofπarticles, and a different interchange format than that of the standardπUsenet software.  It was inspired by the notesfiles available in theπPLATO system and was developed independently from the Usenet news.πEventually, the "notes" network and Usenet were joined via gatewaysπdoing (sometimes imperfect) protocol translation.  The interface forπ"notes" is similar to "rn" but implements different features, many ofπwhich are dictated by its internal organization.  "notes" was writtenπin 1980-1981 by Ray Essick and Rob Kolstad, (then) grad students atπthe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  The first publicπrelease of "notes" was at the January 1982 Usenix conference.  Theπlast release of notes was version 1.7; it is no longer beingπactively maintained.ππUsers of "notes" or old B news software wishing to post to moderatedπgroups should either mail their submissions to the moderator, asπlisted in the monthly posting of "List of Moderators" in the groupπ"news.lists", or else they should post from a system runningπup-to-date news software (i.e., C news or INN).  "notes" users mayπobtain some patches from the comp.sources.unix archives which enableπthe most recent versions of "notes" to interact with moderated groupsπproperly.ππUsers of old B news and "notes" are also not able to take advantage ofπsome other current B news features, such as the "checkgroups" message.π"notes" continues to be a "foreign" system and B news versions areπconsidered "obsolete."  The various maintainers of the Usenet softwareπhave never expressed any commitment to maintain backwardsπcompatibility with "foreign" or obsolete news systems and are unlikelyπto do so; it is the responsibility of the users to maintainπcompatibility of such software if they wish to continue to interactπwith the Usenet.πππSoftware versions & availabilityπ--------------------------------πYou can obtain the version number of your news software by issuingπsome form of "v" command to show the current version -- consult theπman page for details.  Current software is obtainable from almost anyπmajor Usenet site as well as the sites noted in the body of theπarticle, above.πππThe following sites probably have sources to the current news softwareπavailable for anyone needing a copy:ππ  Site  Contactπ  ----  -------π  munnari  [e-mail]π  osu-cis  [e-mail]π  philabs  [e-mail]π  pyramid  [e-mail]π  rutgers  [e-mail]π  tektronix [e-mail]π  watmath  [e-mail]ππSources for most of the news readers and software, including newsπ2.11, C News, "rn", and "trn" are also available in theπcomp.sources.unix archives.  European sites should request the sourcesπfrom their nearest Eunet backbone site.ππStandardsπ---------πNews programs communicate with each other according to standard protocols,πsome of which are described by RFCs.  An RFC is a Request For Comment, aπde facto standard in the Internet Community.  It is a form of publishedπsoftware standard, done through the Network Information Center (NIC) at SRI.πCopies of RFCs are often posted to the net and obtainable from archive sites.πCurrent news-related RFCs include the following:ππ    RFC 822 specifies the format of messages; RFC 1036 uses this.π    RFC 977 specifies NNTP, the Network News Transfer Protocol.π    RFC 1036 specifies the format of Usenet articles.π    RFC 1123 amends RFC 822.π    RFC 1153 specifies the digest format some moderated groups use.ππNewsgroupsπ----------ππThe following newsgroups cover issues discussed in this article, and canπbe consulted for recent developments.ππbit.listserv.netnws-l Discussion about NetNews on VM systems.πgnu.emacs.gnews  News reading under GNU Emacs using Weemba's Gnews.πgnu.emacs.gnus  News reading under GNU Emacs using GNUS (in English).πnews.software.anu-news VMS B-news software from Australian National Univ.πnews.software.b  Discussion about B-news-compatible software.πnews.software.nn Discussion about the "nn" news reader package.πnews.software.notes Notesfile software from the Univ. of Illinois.πnews.software.readers General discussion about news reading software.ππAcknowledgementsπ----------------πThe preparation of this article (and Usenet itself!) was greatlyπenhanced by the contributions and assistance of the following persons:πSteve Bellovin, Ray Essick, Mark Horton, Brian Kantor, Phil Lapsley,πBob Page, Rich Salz, Tom Truscott, and Larry Wall.  Thanks, folks.π-- πGene SpaffordπSoftware Engineering Research Center & Dept. of Computer SciencesπPurdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-1398πInternet:  [e-mail] phone:  [phone]π