Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: C news sending newsgroup junk!
Message-ID: <1991Jan17.172757.7644@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1991Jan16.234551.22017@melb.bull.oz.au>
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 1991 17:27:57 GMT

In article <1991Jan16.234551.22017@melb.bull.oz.au> sjg@melb.bull.oz.au (Simon J Gerraty) writes:
>** /usr/spool/news/comp/unix/aix/1267 1048
>** /usr/spool/news/comp/unix/aux/994 1027
>** /usr/spool/news/unix-pc/general/498 1035
>** /usr/spool/news/junk/9472 1187
>
>The lines I have flaged with ** should _not_ be there.

You need to investigate the articles much more carefully before saying that,
for several reasons:

1. A cross-posted article will go in the batch file by the name of its
first group, but will be sent if *any* of the groups should be sent, so the
name in the batch file doesn't mean much.

2. There is nothing abnormal about a "junk" article being retransmitted.
Transmission is determined by the groups given in the article, not by where
it got filed.  If an article shows up in comp.frobozz, and you don't have
that group, the article will be filed in junk... but if your sys file says
to pass comp.frobozz on to your neighbors, the article will be passed on.
I would urge you to read the news(5) and relaynews(8) manual pages very 
carefully.  The policy issues here are complex and subtle, and it took a
lot of thought to get them right.

3. The comp.unix.* articles are quite legitimate; your sys-file line says
to send them.  "!all.aix" excludes "foo.aix" but not "comp.unix.aix".
Again, I think a reading of news(5) is in order -- it defines the newsgroup
name-matching algorithm precisely.
-- 
If the Space Shuttle was the answer,   | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
what was the question?                 |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry
