BATCHER

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: LOCAL
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NAME

batcher - a new batching system for news

SYNOPSIS

batcher [ -cX ]
batcher [ site ] (typically run out of cron.)

DESCRIPTION

Batcher is designed to feed batched USENET neighbors in a controlled, orderly fashion. In particular, it is designed to replace multiple [cs7]sendbatch scripts, and put an upper limit on the amount of data that may be queued for a site. At some sites, it is also possible to perform checks that will prevent overflowing the filesystem that contains the UUCP spool directory.

Batcher reads the file NEWSLIB/batch.ctrl to determine how to send data to each site. This control file contains one line per down-stream site that describes how to send news to that site. Batcher itself is run out of cron as necessary, setuid news. It should be given a single argument, either the name of a site to batch the news for, or a class (batcher will then do work on all sites in that class).

In the control file, lines beginning with a pound sign (``#'') are ignored. Data lines, one per site being fed, are comprised of seven colon-separated fields:

: site:class:compress:uux_flags:b_size:q_size:uux_command

The name of the site being fed. This is the same as the name in the news: sys file. By using the ``F'' protocol in news, the file /usr/spool/batch/site should contain the full-pathname list of articles intended for that site.
A single letter; the default is ``z.'' Executing ``batcher -cX'' works on all: sites in class ``X.''
This is the command line to use to call: compress; the default is no compression. If something is specified here, it is used as an intermediate pipe, and the ``uux'' field defaults to ``uux ... !cunbatch.''
These are the flags to insert on the uux command line. As distributed, he: default is ``-r -z gd'' (just queue work, only acknowledge failures, grade d transmission).
The size of batches, default is 100K.: This is passed on to the standard batcher program.
The maximum UUCP queue size, default is 500K. As distributed, the program: parses the output of the 4.3BSD command ``uuq -l -sSITE.'' If the queue is currently greater than ``q_size,'' no work is done for the site until it drops below that number.
This can be a complete replacement for the uux command. The default is: ``uux - <uuxflags> site!<unbatch|cunbatch>.''

To use batcher, modify your news sys file so that all (most?) (some??) sites use the batching protocol, e.g.:

: mnetor:net.flame,net.rumor,net.bizarre:F:/usr/spool/batch/mnetor

Note that the batch filename must be the same name as the site being fed. Next edit the control file, placing sites in classes and with queue sizes that seem appropriate. Then, edit /usr/lib/crontab to replace calls to the old batching programs with calls to nbatcher. (It should be running setuid news.) You will probably want to use both ``job class'' calls and explicitly-named sites.

BUGS

Queue and spool-fillage checking is done via uuq and df, respectively. This is somewhat slow, but it is swamped by the execution of the batching itself.

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 21:51:49 GMT, February 02, 2023