From: vince@victrola.sea.wa.us (Vince Skahan) Subject: newspak1.1 binary distribution testers wanted! Date: 14 Nov 1992 13:05:57 GMT
after some wonderful responses from the folks in c.o.l.,
news.software.b, and comp.mail.elm I've figured out
(I think) how to come up with a binary-only distribution
of 'newspak', which if you didn't know contains:
C-news
smail3.1.28
tin1.1p4
trn2.2
nn6.4.16
The current differences between newspak1.0 (now on sunsite)
and newspak1.1 will be in the documentation and hopefully
the addition of this binary distribution. I'll also include
David Black's 'nn' that he uploaded to sunsite.
CALL FOR TESTERS!!!!!!!
=======================
I need folks who want to test this puppy to drop me a line
via e-mail. I'll upload it to an Internet site-to-be-named
early this week and contact you via e-mail with the how-to's.
The .tar.Z file as it stands now is a little under 1.4 MB
so I'll probably break it up into 2 pieces so people
without 1.44MB floppies can play too :-)
I'll do the documentation this weekend and probably upload
on Monday, so get those mail messages to me if you're
interested in testing...
OK, what's the directory structure?
===================================
Since there is no true universal directory structure, I've
chosen to build everything to go under a unified /usenet tree.
You can feel free to link things to your hearts's content and
put 'em where you want 'em, but the binaries all expect to
find their friends under /usenet/<package>/something.
The reason I did this is to make it easy to delete, and easy
to upgrade. I've found that the semi-standard /usr/local/lib,
/usr/local/man, /usr/local/bin, etc. trees get very confusing
and cluttered with junk. However, if you use 'my' distribution
you'll be all set to upgrade to a future kit by just renaming
your old one and installing the new. One command, no pain.
I will accept reasoned, reasonable, input regarding which
paths to put in a final distribution. I will quietly delete
any flames, so don't bother.
What do I have to do after extracting the binaries?
===================================================
RTFM and edit the files it tells you to. It'll be very obvious.
So who's eligible to test?
==========================
I would prefer folks who know how to run USENET software from
past experience, maybe under DOS Waffle/FSUUCP/UUPC or under
another version of unix. The goal here is to see if the software
works as advertised and I'd like *not* to be training new admins
as part of this testing.
What else do I need?
====================
you'll need uucp and mail already set up to give it a true test,
but I guess it's ok to test locally without them. I'd recommend
grabbing mailpak-1.3 from tsx-11.mit.edu or sunsite.unc.edu and
installing at least the 'elm' and 'uucp' parts from sources. I'll
include my config files for both those packages also since my
setup is a little different than Ed's.
--
---------- Vince Skahan --------- vince@victrola.sea.wa.us ----------
Running Linux/C-news/nn/Elm/Smail - we don't need no steenkin' MS-DOS