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From: [email protected] (Julian Assange)
Newsgroups: news.software.nntp,news.software.b,news.admin.misc,comp.sys.mac.app
Subject: NNTPCache FAQ
Supersedes: <[email protected]>
Followup-To: news.software.nntp
Date: 2 Dec 2002 00:05:04 +1100
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Summary: Frequently asked questions and answers about the NNTP Cache caching news server
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Archive-name: usenet/software/nntpcache
Posting-Frequency: biweekly
URL: http://www.nntpcache.org/faq.html

  The official
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             NNTPCACHE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

                 Peter Tonoli <[1][email protected]>

    This is the list of frequently asked questions, and the answers to
      those questions for nntpcache, the caching NNRP server daemon.
  ______________________________________________________________________



                                  Index

  Section 1.  Introduction and General Information
      Q1.1 [2]What is nntpcache?
      Q1.2 [3]What operating systems does nntpcache support?
      Q1.3 [4]Where can I find nntpcache? / Where is the latest version?
      Q1.4 [5]Can I use nntpcache freely or do I have to license it?

  Section 2. Frequently encountered problems and solutions
      Q2.1 [6]My system chokes on all that damned mmap()ing?!. What can
  I do?
      Q2.2 [7]Netscape-news kills itself when reading news from
  nntpcache-0.88.3!
      Q2.3 [8]Expiring with nntpcached -e doesn't work
      Q2.4 [9]Help! The size of our cache keeps growing! What should I
  do about expiration?
      Q2.5 [10]nntpcache spits out : 'post failed From: address not in
  Internet syntax'. What does that mean?
      Q2.6 [11]Why does nntpcache-update take so long to load at
  initialisation?

  Section 3. Support and Resources
      Q3.1 [12]Is there a nntpcache mailinglist?
      Q3.2 [13]How do I unsubscribe from the mailinglist?
      Q3.3 [14]Is there an archive of the nntpcache mailinglist?
      Q3.4 [15]Is there an official nntpcache home page?
      Q3.5 [16]Who should I contact if I can't get nntpcache to work /
  I've found a bug in nntpcache, what should I do?

  Section 4. Configuration of nntpcache
      Q4.1 [17]What are all those entries in the servers configuration
  file?
      Q4.2 [18]How do I specify the "Xref:full" part in the
  "overviewFmt" line in the config file?
      Q4.3 [19]I've entered a server but nntpcache doesn't seem to want
  to know about it.
      Q4.4 [20]I want to set the nntpcache-virtual-server-size record,
  what are some public news-servers I can add to my servers file?
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 1.1. What is nntpcache?

  Nntpcache (efficiently) executes on the localhost pretending to be an
      NNRP news reading server. In fact, what it does is pass certain
      NNTP commands through to real (remote and possibly local)
      news-servers based on various pattern matching rules. nntpcache
      then takes the output from those servers and caches & indexes it
      in funky ways (much specific case magic goes into this). The next
      time such information is asked for, or other information which can
      be logically inferred from the previously collated information, it
      is sent directly from the cache, without consulting the remote
      servers. It provides multi-server group merging, and sophisticated
      weighted content-filtering, access control and a chrooted
      environment. It makes heavy use of shared memory, copy-on-write,
      fd caches, mmaping and more for efficiency capable of serving
      thousands of simultaneous users.

  To sum that up in layman's terms : nntpcache is a cache, similar to
      the Squid object-cache, but nntpcache works on newsgroups. By
      acting as a cache, nntpcache transparently and efficiently saves
      bandwidth enough to feed a small nation. It can also merge dozens
      of news servers into one large "virtual" news server, and provide
      content filtering (censoring! censoring!). It's a miserly beast
      with cpu and memory due to some gee-whizz trickery.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 1.2. What operating systems does nntpcache support?
    nntpcache has been known to compile under most posix systems

  If you find an unusual OS/compiler/library tuple that nntpcache
  appears to compile and run under, then don't keep it to yourself,
  please let tell the devteam at [21][email protected]! (this list
  is.. err dated - nntpcache works on nearly all modern unixes)
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 1.3. Where can I find nntpcache? / Where is the latest
  version?

  The original archive is at :
      [22]ftp://ftp.nntpcache.org/pub/nntpcache/nntpcache.tar.gz
      FreeBSD 2.2.x and above has a port/package available in the ports
      system in news/nntpcache
      NetBSD, OpenBSD have a package in news/nntpcache
      Debian linux has package also maintained by Herber Xu.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 1.4. Can I use nntpcache freely or do I have to license?

  Probably. It depends on who you are. See the LICENSING file for full
      details, but in a nutshell, individuals, non-military, non-profit
      research groups, non-profit organisations (including educational
      institutions) and medical or educational government departments
      may use nntpcache freely. Everyone else (that is commercial
      organisations and government) are required to license in order to
      fund on-going development and support.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 2.1. My system chokes on all that damned mmap()ing?!. What
  can I do?
  a) upgrade your OS. For instance, linux 1.2.13's mmap() does not work
      correctly in shared mode. Linux 2.0 rectified this.
      b) get a decent OS. Ultrix mmap is totally broken!
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 2.2. Netscape-news kills itself when reading news from
  nntpcache-0.88.3!

  We know. Didn't get a bugs-bounty either. Geesh. nntpcache-0.90+
      formats its data in a way that makes netscape happier. But it IS
      netscape's fault for expecting nnrpd style response messages.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 2.3. Expiring with nntpcached -e doesn't work

  Running nntpcached -e on a system that is already running nntpcache
      doesn't work. To expire on a system that is already running
      nntpcache, send the nntpcache process the USR2 signal.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 2.4. Help! The size of our cache keeps growing! What should I
  do about expiration?

  Expiration should be automatic, it is controlled by the following in
      the config file:

# expire if there are under this number of blocks in the cache
# partition
minBlocksFree 1000
# run expire if there are under this number of inodes in the cache
# partition
minFilesFree 1000
# don't let the history file grow larger than this (bytes) hisHighWater 60M
# when it does, trim it back to this (bytes)
hisLowWater 40M
# When we do an expire, kill articles older than this
maxArtAge 2w
# check disk space, etc for automatic expiry this often
# (but only after a client connects or disconnects)
expireCheckPeriod 5m
      The important point that isn't made clear here is that expire runs
      only occur when minBlocksFree or minFilesFree are not satisfied.
      i.e the cache will happily grow until the disk starts filling up.
      Cache expiration isn't incredibly intelligent, although it is very
      fast and tries to track the actual state of affairs on the remote
      server.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 2.5. nntpcache spits out : 'post failed From: address not in
  Internet syntax'. What does that mean?

  That error message translated into normal English means: Your attempt
      to post failed because the address in the "From:" field was not in
      the format user@host. To solve the problem, ensure you have a
      correct reply-to address configured in the newsreader.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 2.6. Why does nntpcache-update take so long to load at
  initialisation?
  nntpcache update takes a while on master startup since it loads
      overview.fmt, active, newsgroups and active.times lists from the
      providing server(s). these lists typically run into several
      mega-bytes, and nntpcache isn't able to serve clients till it has
      its hot little hands on this vital information.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 3.1. Is there a nntpcache mailinglist?

  Sure is! To join the thrills and spills of the mailinglist! Poke fun
      at Julian's coding style! Find bugs in Herbert Xu's bug fixes!
      Submit nntpcache filters to filter out all messages posted by the
      Kook of the Month and more! Send a message with the subject of
      'subscribe' to the address
      '[23][email protected]' (without the single
      quotes).
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 3.2. How do I unsubscribe from the mailinglist?

  Unsubscribing from the mailinglist is as simple as subscribing. To
      unsubscribe, send a message with the subject of 'unsubscribe' to
      the address '[24][email protected]' (without
      the single quotes).
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 3.3. Is there an archive of the nntpcache mailinglist?

  Yes! There are actually two archives of the nntpcache mailinglist. The
      first archive is at :
      [25]ftp://ftp.nntpcache.org/pub/nntpcache/mailinglist
      A HTML version of the mailinglist archive is available at:
      [26]http://www.support.nl/online/nntpquery.html
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 3.4. Is there an official nntpcache home page?

  Is the pope catholic? The official nntpcache home-page is accessible
      at [27]http://www.nntpcache.org/
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 3.5. Who should I contact if I can't get nntpcache to work /
  I've found a bug in nntpcache, what should I do?

  If you're not subscribed to the mailinglist, send your report to
      '[28][email protected]', otherwise send your report to the
      mailinglist. Along with your report, send your servers and access
      files and syslog output if appropiate to expedite a fix to your
      problem. ok. ok. expedite is a euphemism :)
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 4.1. What are all those entries in the servers configuration
  file?

  They signify how long nntpcache should keep the following
      * Active
      the active file
      * Act.tim
      active.times
      * Newsgrp
      newsgroups
      * Group
      What you get if you / a client types 'group some.newsgroup'
      * Xover
      What you get if you / a client types 'xover low-high'
      * Arts
      What you get if you / a client types 'head/body/article no'
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 4.2. How do I specify the "Xref:full" part in the
  "overviewFmt" line in the config file?

  You shouldn't have to specify the overviewFmt thing if the remote
      server supports 'LIST overview.fmt'. But if you insist, just
      'Xref' will do.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 4.3. I've entered a server but nntpcache doesn't seem to want
  to know about it.

  Have you made sure there's a period ('.') after the domain name of
      your server?
      For example:

news.mynet.net DEFAULT 4h 2d 2d 30m 60d 60d
      is probably wrong, but:
news.mynet.net. DEFAULT 4h 2d 2d 30m 60d 60d
      is likely correct.



  It isn't essential to use a period after the domain name ('.'), but it
  is essential that you use do so *consistently*. The period is used to
  anchor the domain to speed domain lookups, and nntpcache will treat
  references to a server without a period as an entirely different
  server to one with a period. If the server in questions is in
  /etc/hosts and you /etc/resolv.conf (or equivalent) tells your DNS
  resolver library routines to search /etc/hosts before NIS/DNS then you
  probably DON'T want the period appended (unless you have a
  corresponding period in the /etc/hosts entry)
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Question 4.4. I want to set the nntpcache-virtual-server-size record,
  what are some public news-servers I can add to my servers file?

  >Does anyone have a list of corporate newsservers (ie:
      msnews.microsoft.com >for microsoft.*, news.3dfx.com for 3dfx.*,
      etc.)?
      If anyone can add to or has corrections for this list, please let
      me know. Some entries are commented because I haven't had time to
      specifically add all groups they carry or because they weren't
      responding.

newsgroups.intel.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
msnews.microsoft.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
news.3dfx.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
miriam.fuller.edu. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
adesknews.autodesk.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
forums.borland.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
hope.harvard.net. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
cnews.corel.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
news.avault.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
news.linkexchange.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
#forums.macromedia.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
#news.activeie.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
#news.interaktiv-media.se. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
publicnews.msn.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
news.netobjects.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
secnews.netscape.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
beetle.privatei.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
massena.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
cor.newman.upenn.edu. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
forums.powersoft.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
news.sff.net. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
nntp.net-link.net. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
service.symantec.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
#jazz.trumpet.com.au. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
news.turbopower.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
news.ksc.nasa.gov. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
news.glbs.com. DEFAULT 24h 4d 4d 30m 60d 60d
%BeginGroups
# Group pattern Host
* your.main.server.here
alt.oui.support* beetle.privatei.com.
asp.* news.glbs.com.
audioweb.* news.glbs.com.
3dfx.* news.3dfx.com.
autodesk.* adesknews.autodesk.com.
avault.* news.avault.com.
borland.* forums.borland.com.
cakewalk.* hope.harvard.net.
corel.* cnews.corel.com.
crescent.* news.glbs.com.
db.* news.glbs.com.
forum.* news.avault.com.
glbs.* news.glbs.com.
intel.* newsgroups.intel.com.
le.* news.linkexchange.com.
linux.* miriam.fuller.edu.
microsoft.* msnews.microsoft.com.
msn.* publicnews.msn.com.
net-link.* nntp.net-link.net.
netobjects.* news.netobjects.com.
netscape.* secnews.netscape.com.
ntworthy* news.glbs.com.
people.* secnews.netscape.com.
pilot.* massena.com.
powerbasic.* news.glbs.com.
powersoft.* forums.powersoft.com.
sff.* news.sff.net.
sybase.* forums.powersoft.com.
symantec.* service.symantec.com.
#trumpet.* jazz.trumpet.com.au.
turbopower.* news.turbopower.com.
woll2woll* news.glbs.com.
mail.winvn news.ksc.nasa.gov.
perl.porters-gw cor.newman.upenn.edu.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Acknowledgements:
  Alan Brown <[29][email protected]>
      Herbert Xu <[30][email protected]>
      Julian Assange <[31][email protected]>
      Ken Eves  <[32][email protected]>

References

  1. mailto:[email protected]
  2. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q1.1
  3. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q1.2
  4. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q1.3
  5. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q1.4
  6. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q2.1
  7. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q2.2
  8. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q2.3
  9. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q2.4
 10. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q2.5
 11. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q2.6
 12. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q3.1
 13. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q3.2
 14. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q3.3
 15. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q3.4
 16. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q3.5
 17. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q4.1
 18. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q4.2
 19. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q4.3
 20. file://localhost/home/proff/c/nntpcache-2.4.0b6/FAQ.html#Q4.4
 21. mailto:[email protected]
 22. ftp://ftp.nntpcache.org/pub/nntpcache/nntpcache.tar.gz
 23. mailto:[email protected]
 24. mailto:[email protected]
 25. ftp://ftp.nntpcache.org/pub/nntpcache/mailinglist
 26. http://www.support.nl/online/nntpquery.html
 27. http://www.nntpcache.org/
 28. mailto:[email protected]
 29. mailto:[email protected]
 30. mailto:[email protected]
 31. mailto:[email protected]
 32. mailto:[email protected]

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