rslight is basically a web interface to usenet newsgroups.
'Rocksolid' is a usenet hierarchy.

When you install rslight, it requires three separate directories:

For the files needed by the web server to serve content, a web accessible
directory such as /var/www/html/
The directories under this directory (common, rocksolid and spoolnews) must
all be relative to eachother:
/var/www/html/common
/var/www/html/rocksolid
/var/www/html/spoolnews

For the configuration files and user database: /etc/rslight

For the article spool, overview and similar info: /var/spool/rslight

These three directories can be anywhere, but can not be in the same
directory as some file names are the same, and you don't want config files,
scripts and spool dir in your web path.

rslight includes a simple nntp server, which is the server that rslight
contacts to read and write articles. the file 'spoolnews.php' collects
articles from a remote server and builds a spool, which the nntp server uses
to provide articles to rslight. You can also connect to the nntp server
using a news reader (thunderbird, knode and tin have been tested).

The file /etc/rslight/scripts/cron.php must be run as a cron job
periodically. This will start the nntp server if it's not running, and run
spoolnews.php and other support scripts as necessary. If you don't run the
cron job, rslight won't work.

If you want to bind the nntp server to port 119, or any port lower than
1024, you need to run cron.php as root, which is preferred. The privileges
will drop to your web server user after binding to the port.

Once you run the installation script, edit the configuration files:
/etc/rslight/rslight.inc.php and /etc/rslight/rocksolid.inc.php to specify
your remote nntp server, your remote server credentials, and where to bind
the included nntp server. There is more to configure, but these are the
critical settings.

After that, start the cron job as specified by the install script, which if
you install on debian is (should be one line):
*/5 * * * * cd /var/www/html/spoolnews ; bash -lc "php
/etc/rslight/scripts/cron.php"

After a few minutes, and if you've configured rslight.inc.php correctly, you
should see your nntp server running:
$ ps aux | grep nntp
www-data 19045 23.0 1.0 207924 10480 ? Ss May04 516:48 php
/etc/rslight/scripts/nntp.php

and you should start seeing files appearing in your spool directory. If that
isn't happening, make sure you've installed the necessary packages as per
the installation instructions and that you've configured properly. You can
also run the cron.php script from the command line (as root) and look for
errors. This must be run from the /var/www/html/spoolnews directory

Once you have the nntp server running, and are running the cron job, you
should see things appearing in /var/spool/rslight. Wait at least 15 minutes
before expecting to see any result in the web interface. The groups list
refreshes every 10 minutes, so for the first 10-15 minutes, it will be empty
(no groups displayed).

I have installed rslight per the install instructions and using the
installation script numerous times on debian (jessie and stretch) and
freebsd 12, and have had no trouble.

If you don't get it working, please post to rocksolid.nodes.help and we'll
try to diagnose the issue.

Retro Guy

Retro Guy wrote:

> When you install rslight, it requires three separate directories:
>
> For the files needed by the web server to serve content, a web accessible
> directory such as /var/www/html/
> The directories under this directory (common, rocksolid and spoolnews)
> must all be relative to eachother:
> /var/www/html/common
> /var/www/html/rocksolid
> /var/www/html/spoolnews
>
> For the configuration files and user database: /etc/rslight
>
> For the article spool, overview and similar info: /var/spool/rslight
>
> These three directories can be anywhere, but can not be in the same
> directory as some file names are the same, and you don't want config
> files, scripts and spool dir in your web path.

It should be noted that if you change these locations after running the
installation script, the changes must be noted in:
/var/www/html/common/config.inc.php

This is the main file that tells the rslight where to find configuration and
spool.

Retro Guy

Wow
this seems super comlicated for me
too bad i want to build a site like this :( i wish i could learn all the things but i am too old :(

--
Posted on Rocksolid Light

>this seems super comlicated for me

What would be an easier way ?

--
Posted on Rocksolid Light

gof wrote:

> Wow
> this seems super comlicated for me

I think that post I wrote makes it look complicated to install, but really the install script does almost all of the work. It's actually pretty simple to install.

> too bad i want to build a site like this :( i wish i could learn all the things but i am too old :(

You're never too old. Start with some software that already exists and modify it. You'll gain more confidence when you see your mods in action.

I'm only a programmer by hobby, I don't do this for a living, just for fun. Also, I'm not young, lol, I'm a 56 year old restaurant manager that can't wait to get out of the kitchen each day and get back to the computer.

--
Retro Guy