I want to add some messages to a local newsgroup. This way I can mirror
a blog to a newgroup just by copying over text files and giving them
numbered filenames.

Here is the scenario. Rslight php7.4 version.

The message files are numbered 15, 16.

There are no existing files in the spool folder that conflict with
these file names.

I want to copy these text files files to the spool folder then have them
show up when the next cron runs.

I tried this several times using the -reset command on import-db3.php
then running the cron. The files do not show up.

However I am able to telnet to the nntp server and pull the articles by
the commands, 'article 15' and 'article 16'. But the articles do not
show up in any newsreader.

What am I missing? And would the solution be different for the php8
version of rslight?

--

SugarBug | https://sybershock.com

Syber Shock wrote:

> I want to add some messages to a local newsgroup. This way I can mirror
> a blog to a newgroup just by copying over text files and giving them
> numbered filenames.

> Here is the scenario. Rslight php7.4 version.

> The message files are numbered 15, 16.

> There are no existing files in the spool folder that conflict with
> these file names.

> I want to copy these text files files to the spool folder then have them
> show up when the next cron runs.

> I tried this several times using the -reset command on import-db3.php
> then running the cron. The files do not show up.

import-db3.php will only 'import' from an existing <group>-articles.db3 file.

> However I am able to telnet to the nntp server and pull the articles by
> the commands, 'article 15' and 'article 16'. But the articles do not
> show up in any newsreader.

That's because the articles are not in the overview, only the spool. Telnet
and asking for the article will work because it does not consult the overview,
but most readers (including rslight) will send an XOVER command. Since they
are not in the overview, XOVER will not list the articles as available.

> What am I missing? And would the solution be different for the php8
> version of rslight?

Can you feed the articles via nntp? Maybe a script to read through a dir file
by file, and post each file's contents? This will also allow rslight to
assign the article numbers and write the overview properly.

There are no changes in code for php8 that should make finding ways to do
this any different.

--
Posted on Rocksolid Light

On Mon, 8 May 2023 01:50:05 +0000
retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com (Retro Guy) wrote:

> Can you feed the articles via nntp? Maybe a script to read through a
> dir file by file, and post each file's contents? This will also allow
> rslight to assign the article numbers and write the overview properly.

I can use a telnet script locally to do as you suggest. It's not ideal
but it is what it is.

One of the reasons I wanted to cheat with just writing to the file system is
so I could provide a custom spool numbering scheme based on dates and
times.

For example I could number files by date and add a suffix. The first
article copied today would be in the spool as file '20230507000001'.
Then I could point my gopher and gemini servers at the directory so the
blog is also a phlog and a gemlog easily browsed by dates. See here for
an ugly example of what I hoped to organize by dates just by naming the
files: gopher://sybershock.com

I could script symlinks based on the date in each article and point
gopher, gemini and hypertext at a directory of those.

I suppose what I will do is just put the date and sequence number in
the message ID for each article, or just insert a custom X-Post-Number:
header or such and parse that with some scripts to generate links.

My goal is to unify NNTP, gopher, gemini, hypertext, and toot,
all pointing to the same spool files, each protocol presenting their
links as date-based numbers.

If you or anyone else has any better ideas I'd be glad to see them.

--

SugarBug | https://sybershock.com

Syber Shock wrote:

> On Mon, 8 May 2023 01:50:05 +0000
> retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com (Retro Guy) wrote:

>> Can you feed the articles via nntp? Maybe a script to read through a
>> dir file by file, and post each file's contents? This will also allow
>> rslight to assign the article numbers and write the overview properly.

> I can use a telnet script locally to do as you suggest. It's not ideal
> but it is what it is.

> One of the reasons I wanted to cheat with just writing to the file system is
> so I could provide a custom spool numbering scheme based on dates and
> times.

> For example I could number files by date and add a suffix. The first
> article copied today would be in the spool as file '20230507000001'.
> Then I could point my gopher and gemini servers at the directory so the
> blog is also a phlog and a gemlog easily browsed by dates. See here for
> an ugly example of what I hoped to organize by dates just by naming the
> files: gopher://sybershock.com

> I could script symlinks based on the date in each article and point
> gopher, gemini and hypertext at a directory of those.

> I suppose what I will do is just put the date and sequence number in
> the message ID for each article, or just insert a custom X-Post-Number:
> header or such and parse that with some scripts to generate links.

> My goal is to unify NNTP, gopher, gemini, hypertext, and toot,
> all pointing to the same spool files, each protocol presenting their
> links as date-based numbers.

> If you or anyone else has any better ideas I'd be glad to see them.

I see what you're doing now, it makes sense. It is beyond the design
of rslight, but not too complicated (as you mention).

I will try to modify import-db3.php to better support tradspool (I had
considered that deprecated when I wrote that script).

Take a look at 'send.php'. That script already takes files from a
directory and feeds them to a nntp server. That's the purpose of the
script. Maybe with some minor mods it may help.

--
Retro Guy

Retro Guy wrote:

> Syber Shock wrote:

>> On Mon, 8 May 2023 01:50:05 +0000
>> retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com (Retro Guy) wrote:

>>> Can you feed the articles via nntp? Maybe a script to read through a
>>> dir file by file, and post each file's contents? This will also allow
>>> rslight to assign the article numbers and write the overview properly.

>> I can use a telnet script locally to do as you suggest. It's not ideal
>> but it is what it is.

>> One of the reasons I wanted to cheat with just writing to the file system is
>> so I could provide a custom spool numbering scheme based on dates and
>> times.

>> For example I could number files by date and add a suffix. The first
>> article copied today would be in the spool as file '20230507000001'.
>> Then I could point my gopher and gemini servers at the directory so the
>> blog is also a phlog and a gemlog easily browsed by dates. See here for
>> an ugly example of what I hoped to organize by dates just by naming the
>> files: gopher://sybershock.com

>> I could script symlinks based on the date in each article and point
>> gopher, gemini and hypertext at a directory of those.

>> I suppose what I will do is just put the date and sequence number in
>> the message ID for each article, or just insert a custom X-Post-Number:
>> header or such and parse that with some scripts to generate links.

>> My goal is to unify NNTP, gopher, gemini, hypertext, and toot,
>> all pointing to the same spool files, each protocol presenting their
>> links as date-based numbers.

>> If you or anyone else has any better ideas I'd be glad to see them.

> I see what you're doing now, it makes sense. It is beyond the design
> of rslight, but not too complicated (as you mention).

> I will try to modify import-db3.php to better support tradspool (I had
> considered that deprecated when I wrote that script).

> Take a look at 'send.php'. That script already takes files from a
> directory and feeds them to a nntp server. That's the purpose of the
> script. Maybe with some minor mods it may help.

I'm looking at import-db3.php now, and it should be fairly simple to modify
it to handle tradspool. I will work on this, but cannot guarantee a time
frame. I like where you are trying to go with this, and would like to support
this effort.

--
Retro Guy

Syber Shock wrote:

> My goal is to unify NNTP, gopher, gemini, hypertext, and toot,
> all pointing to the same spool files, each protocol presenting their
> links as date-based numbers.

Do you want the files to be written by each protocol, or are the
messages provided from an external source?

--
Retro Guy

On Mon, 8 May 2023 16:59:23 +0000
retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com (Retro Guy) wrote:

<snip>

> I'm looking at import-db3.php now, and it should be fairly simple to
> modify it to handle tradspool. I will work on this, but cannot
> guarantee a time frame. I like where you are trying to go with this,
> and would like to support this effort.

Thank you, sir. No rush. Rome was not built in a day.

--

SugarBug | https://sybershock.com

Syber Shock wrote:

> On Mon, 8 May 2023 16:59:23 +0000
> retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com (Retro Guy) wrote:

> <snip>

>> I'm looking at import-db3.php now, and it should be fairly simple to
>> modify it to handle tradspool. I will work on this, but cannot
>> guarantee a time frame. I like where you are trying to go with this,
>> and would like to support this effort.

> Thank you, sir. No rush. Rome was not built in a day.

I've complete this script and it seems to work ok in my limited testing.

It will read the tradspool dir for a group, and add any articles existing
to the overview if not already included in same.

Run the same as import (from <webdir>/spoolnews) as web user.

I added it to the rslight/scripts dir of the php8 branch on github.

Right now it uses the date from the article header. Not sure if that's what
you want, but it can be changed.

--
Retro Guy

On Fri, 12 May 2023 18:11:21 +0000
retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com (Retro Guy) wrote:

> Syber Shock wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 8 May 2023 16:59:23 +0000
> > retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com (Retro Guy) wrote:
>
> > <snip>
>
> >> I'm looking at import-db3.php now, and it should be fairly simple
> >> to modify it to handle tradspool. I will work on this, but cannot
> >> guarantee a time frame. I like where you are trying to go with
> >> this, and would like to support this effort.
>
> > Thank you, sir. No rush. Rome was not built in a day.
>
> I've complete this script and it seems to work ok in my limited
> testing.
>
> It will read the tradspool dir for a group, and add any articles
> existing to the overview if not already included in same.
>
> Run the same as import (from <webdir>/spoolnews) as web user.
>
> I added it to the rslight/scripts dir of the php8 branch on github.
>
> Right now it uses the date from the article header. Not sure if
> that's what you want, but it can be changed.
>

It sounds like it does what is needed. This looks nifty. I'll have a
look.

If I change the numerical name of a file, or the date header, will it
rename the file or make a new file of the new name?

The basic idea in my mind is just the ability to point it at the
tradspool folder with arbitrarily numbered files and then be able to
point nntp and the other services (gopher, etc) at the same folder or a
symlink to a spool folder. Most services will list or index the files
in numerical order, so date-based naming makes it easy to choose by
date.

I think this might work. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

--

SugarBug | https://sybershock.com

Syber Shock wrote:

> On Fri, 12 May 2023 18:11:21 +0000
> retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com (Retro Guy) wrote:

>> Syber Shock wrote:
>>
>> > On Mon, 8 May 2023 16:59:23 +0000
>> > retro.guy@rocksolidbbs.com (Retro Guy) wrote:
>>
>> > <snip>
>>
>> >> I'm looking at import-db3.php now, and it should be fairly simple
>> >> to modify it to handle tradspool. I will work on this, but cannot
>> >> guarantee a time frame. I like where you are trying to go with
>> >> this, and would like to support this effort.
>>
>> > Thank you, sir. No rush. Rome was not built in a day.
>>
>> I've complete this script and it seems to work ok in my limited
>> testing.
>>
>> It will read the tradspool dir for a group, and add any articles
>> existing to the overview if not already included in same.
>>
>> Run the same as import (from <webdir>/spoolnews) as web user.
>>
>> I added it to the rslight/scripts dir of the php8 branch on github.
>>
>> Right now it uses the date from the article header. Not sure if
>> that's what you want, but it can be changed.
>>

> It sounds like it does what is needed. This looks nifty. I'll have a
> look.

> If I change the numerical name of a file, or the date header, will it
> rename the file or make a new file of the new name?

No, it will just verify that the Message-ID already exists and skip it.
Once it's in the spool and overview, it's there as is until deleted or
expired.

> The basic idea in my mind is just the ability to point it at the
> tradspool folder with arbitrarily numbered files and then be able to
> point nntp and the other services (gopher, etc) at the same folder or a
> symlink to a spool folder. Most services will list or index the files
> in numerical order, so date-based naming makes it easy to choose by
> date.

I like it.

--
Retro Guy