Installation instructions for rebatch v1.0

Read the file README for a general overview of rebatch. The file THEORY explains how this program hangs together at the technical level.

Contents

Requirements

The rebatch package requires Perl and its libraries to be installed on your system. It runs under both Perl 4.036 and Perl 5.000 without modification. It does not use any Perl 5 specific features, or hairy Perl constructs ;)

Installation

All of the configuration for rebatch and where.to is set in Perl variables in the file
rebatch.conf
There are also several variables related to the installation of scripts and manual pages in the Makefile.

The steps below outline what needs to be looked at and what it all means.

0. Know what I assume

READ THE ASSUMPTIONS PART OF THE THEORY FILE. If those assumptions are not true at your site you are going to have to work a bit harder. I give some work arounds. If you find any more, please let me know.

While you are at it you might as well read the rest of this installation document, the README and the manual pages.

1. Auto-configuration (optional)

The rebatch package can be auto-configured using the values set in INN's config.data file. To make use of this: (a) Edit the Makefile and change the definitions at the top of the file to point to the INN files at your site:
INN_CONF_DIR
the 'config' directory in INN's distribution
INN_SUBST
location of subst program
INN_CONFIG_DATA
location of config.data file
SED
same as in config/Makefile
(b) Type
make config
to perform the substitutions.

You should definitely look through rebatch.conf and the Makefile to make sure it has done the right thing, and the values there match the reality of your setup.

2. Other things in the Makefile

(a) To perform automatic installation using the Makefile you will need to alter the variable
INN_INSTALLIT
to point to the installit.sh script in INN.

If you are unhappy with the installation directory you will need to alter the line:

NEWSBIN = /usr/local/news/bin
to point to the right place.

3. Where is Perl?

The first line of the rebatch and where.to scripts
#!/usr/local/bin/perl5 -w
may need to be altered to point to your Perl interpreter. The '-w' flag makes Perl complain about possible typos or logic errors, as well as just plain stupid mistakes I have made. Remove it if you wish.

4. Where are you installing me?

If you altered the NEWSBIN variable in the Makefile you will need to adjust the lines in rebatch and where.to that read:
push(@INC, "/usr/local/news/bin");
to match the Makefile

5. All of the configuration parameters

All of the variables used by the rebatch and where.to scripts are set in the file
rebatch.conf

You should look through these and make sure they match your set up.

The variables are:

$debug
debugging level. Also set by the -d and -n flags
$remove_status
should rebatch remove its temporary files when the batch has been sent? See the notes on $rebatch_status_prefix below.
$path_batchdir
where does INN write batch files
$path_newsfeeds
where is your newsfeeds file?
$path_locks
where to write lock files.
$rebatch_lockfile
lockfile for the master rebatch process
$rebatch_lockfile_prefix
lockfile prefix for each site behind. Lock files are make of the form $rebatch_lockfile_prefix.$sitename, e.g., /usr/local/news/LOCK.rebatch.auckland.ac.nz (for $sitename == auckland.ac.nz).
$nntplink_id
how to identify NNTPlink feed sites in newsfeeds file
$nntplink_link_suffix
NNTPlink state files that appear in the $path_batchdir directory. These are the files with the name like news.auckland.ac.nz.link.
$nntplink_tmp_suffix
suffix NNTPlink uses when remote host is down. These are files with the name like news.auckland.ac.nz.1234.tmp.
$log
log file for rebatch. Set to "/dev/null" if you don't want any. You might want to add rotation of this file to your news.daily progress.
$rebatch_batch_suffix
suffix used for rebatch batch files in $path_batchdir.
$rebatch_status_prefix
prefixed uses to record innxmit's debugging output. These files can get big and DO NOT GET DELETED when the innxmit finishes (why? so you can easily see the reason the site stopped) Choose somewhere where there is lots of space. You can make rebatch delete them by default or by a command line option.
$ctlinnd
where do I find this program?
$innxmit
how to send off batch files. It is probably best to include a '-t nnn' timeout parameter to avoid hung processes.
where.to has a subset of these variables.

6. Installation

Aftering altering the variables, you can type
make install
to install the scripts in the directory given in the Makefile.

You can run the programs in the current directory by using

perl rebatch parameters
or
chmod a+x rebatch where.to
./rebatch parameters

7. Test it out

Try rebatch out in 'debug, no execute mode' to see what it does...
./rebatch -n | more
it should print things out about all the sites it finds, then what it thinks about each site. It will tell you about the files it finds and what it will do.

If it pauses after a saying

.... running innxmit -d nntp.host nntp.host.rebatch
don't panic. There is a small sleep in there to make the parent/child waiting stuff works.

You could then try it in real mode

./rebatch -d
and then try tailing /tmp/rebatch.whatever to see it in action. Then try out 'where.to'

8. Install the manual pages (optional)

To install the manual pages, type
make install-man

De-Installation

If you ever want to uninstall this package you can type
make uninstall uninstall-man
or remove the files from the binary directory and the man pages from the manual page directory.
Part of the rebatch package
Russell Street (r.street@auckland.ac.nz)
Last updated: 12th February 1995