.ls 1
.ap A "Notesfile Installation Checklist"

.a1 "Installing Notesfile Code"

	You can be sure that you have modified all necessary constants
in the notesfile system by following this simple checklist.

.bz
.iz
change to the notesfile source directory
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tar x 
[reads the notesfile tape]
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cd src
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[edit] parms.h
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ARCHTIME.
Default for how long unmodified note strings hang around.
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WORKSETSIZE.
The default number of notes to leave in a notesfile when archiving.
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DFLTSH.
This should be left as the Bourne shell, /bin/sh -RBE
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DFLTED.
The editor to use if no NFED or EDITOR environment variable
exists.
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SEQFILE.
This is the name of a file in the utility directory which contains
a list of notesfiles for users without an NFSEQ environment variable.
The default is probably just fine.
.iz
DFLTSEQ.
For users without an NFSEQ environment variable and when the file
specified by the SEQFILE definition above doesn't exist, we
finally fall back to using the notesfiles specified by this string.
The nice thing about having things in SEQFILE is that you don't
have to recompile the notesfile software everytime you wish to
change the default set of notesfiles; instead you edit a file.
.iz
MAILER.
The program which will do mailing.
If you are in a networked environment, this mailer should
manage to route letters to far away places for you.
The notesfile system only retains the name of the destination site;
a path to that site is not kept.
.iz
SUPERMAILER.
This should be defined if you have an intelligent mail program.
Intelligent here means that you can edit the letter and other
fun things.
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PAGER.
A program which shows 1 screenful of information at a time.
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WRITE.
A program which allows online user-user communication
(such as /bin/write).
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FULLDOMAIN.
This defines the domain name of your local systems. For many
USENET sites, this should be ``UUCP''.
Other examples include ``ARPA'' and ``Uiuc.ARPA''.
This should not include the system name.
In the UIUC Computer Science Department, we have machines named
``uiucdcs'', ``uiucdcsb'', and so on;
our value for FULLDOMAIN is ``Uiuc.ARPA''.
The notesfile code puts
things together to yield ``uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA'' as a
full domain name for one of our machines.
Note that you do NOT need to place a ``.'' at the beginning of
the domain name; the notesfile software does this for you.
.iz
IDDOMAIN.
This switch is (for now) undefined.
When defined it indicates the the unique id's associated with
notes are to have a system component containing the system
name and the string defined by FULLDOMAIN.
The eventual goal is that this will be defined.
Currently, there are problems with using long strings
for unique identifiers. This is related to the old notesfile
structure which used a 10 character maximum and didn't check for
overflow.
.br
So for now, leave this undefined.
I'm not sure when it will be good to enable this option.
.iz
Select a kernel type for your machine.
If no kernel is selected, the code may compile but most
likely will not run.
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PROMPT.
If you wish the system to give a command prompt.
Otherwise the notesfile system is promptless.
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USERHOST.
If this is defined, the notesfile system uses the convention
``user@host'' to indicate where an article originated.
If undefined, the notesfile system uses a ``host!user''
notation.
If you are running in an environment which supports Internet
style names, you may choose to use this.
.iz
DYNADIR.
When defined, the notesfile system will determine the default
spool directory notesfiles from /etc/passwd.
The home directory for the user ``notes'' (actually whatever is
specified in the Makefile) is read from /etc/passwd and the
parent directory is used as the default spool directory.
Thus if notes' home directory is ``/usr/spool/notes/.utilities'',
the default directory is ``/usr/spool/notes''.
This assumes that notes' home directory is in the .utilities
directory.
.sp
This is useful for the case where a single binary will be run
on several machines with differing disk layouts.
On one, the database might live in /usr/spool/notes; another
host might have the data base in /mnt/notes.
By using DYNADIR and moving the ``notes'' home directory
on various machines, only one binary is needed.
.sp
If the notes database lives in the same place on all of your
machines, a better approach is to use the MSTDIR definition
in the Makefile.
.iz
K_KEY.
When defined, the ``k'' and ``K'' keys act similarly to the
``q'' and ``Q' keys respectively.
The choice is up to you.
Defining them allows reading of notes with one hand.
However some people get aggravated when the miss the ``j'' key
and hit the ``k'' key.
All the documentation considers the ``k'' key to be active.
.iz
BIGTEXT.
Define this is you want to allow notes longer than 65000 bytes.
Note that if you have old notesfiles, you will have to dump and
reload them with the ``nfdump'' and ``nfload'' programs before
the new code will work on them.
.iz
.ft B
The following definitions are pretty much ``stock'' and
usually aren't changed.
.ft P
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NFMAINT.
This is the name of the notesfile which receives control messages,
error reports and other notesfile logging functions.
I do not recommend #undef'ing this.
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AUTOCREATE.
When defined, network receptions of previously undefined notesfiles
will cause the creation of that notesfile.
If undefined, the reception will fail if the notesfile doesn't
exist.
This is used in environments such as USENET where new notesfiles
are often created remotely.
.iz
STATS.
If defined, the statistics keeping code is enabled.  If undefined,
the notesfile system will not keep statistics.
Keeping statistics involves no space overhead and relatively
little time overhead; I recommend leaving this defined.
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FASTSEQ.
Enables code which ``fails-quickly'' by determining in an
inexpensive operation if there can't be any new articles.
When there might be new articles,
a more thorough and time consuming algorithm
is used.
.iz
DUMPCORE.
This defines a subdirectory of the notesfile utility directory
where core images generated by internal consistency checks are
placed.  If undefined, the errors will be logged but no core
image is generated.
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FASTFORK.
This definition enables a quick forking algorithm which 
exec's the desired program immediately instead of going through
the system(III) interface.
It avoids an extra fork()/execl() and shell startup costs.
However some functionality is lost.
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[finished editing parms.h] 
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[edit] Makefile
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select BIN.
The directory where user commands are kept.
The Makefile will NOT create this directory.
At UIUC, we use /usr/bin. Another common choice is
/usr/local.
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MSTDIR.
The default directory for notesfiles.
The Makefile WILL make this directory for you.
This is typically /usr/spool/notes.
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ARCHDIR.
Old notes never die, they go here instead;
the Makefile WILL make this directory for you.
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NET.
This is the directory where the notesfile networking programs
``nfxmit'' and ``nfrcv'' will be placed.
In most cases, ``/usr/bin'' is a good choice.
You may wish to change it if your UUCP or other networking
mechanisms use other directories.
This directory must already exist;
the Makefile will not create it.
.iz
AUTOSEQ.
The invocation name for the automatic sequencer.
For multiple names like `autoseq', `readnotes' and `autonotes',
make links to the file ``/usr/bin/notes'' with the appropriate
names (assuming that BIN = `/usr/bin').
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NOTES.
The username of the user who ``owns'' all the notesfiles.
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NOTESUID.
The numeric userid of the notesfile ``owner''.
For example NOTES = notes, NOTESUID = 10.
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NOTESGRP.
The name of the group to which the ``NOTES'' signon belongs.
.ft B
It is strongly recommended that this be a special group
just for the notes database and programs.
.ft P
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ANON.
The name of the ``anonymous'' user.
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ANONUID.
The numeric userid of the ``anonymous'' user;
this should be an idle user id since it is not allowed to
run the notesfile program.
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LIBDIR.
The directory to contain ``libnfcom.a'', a user accessible library
of routines.
This is distributed as /usr/local/lib.
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CFLAGS.
You may wish to arrange for split I/D loading on a PDP-11
(the -i flag).
It may also be prudent to optimize the code (-O flag).
If code size is an issue, remove the RCSIDENT definition;
when defined, version control information is included in the
binaries and they are correspondingly larger.
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[finished editing]
Makefile
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[may need to become super-user at this point]
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type ``make base''
and assess its completion.
It will tell you if all went well.
.ft B
If you are merely installing a new version of the notesfile code,
you should type ``touch base'' instead of ``make base''.
.ft P
.iz
Signon as notesfile ``owner''.
While remaining super-user isn't a fatal flaw at this point, it
does mean that several default notesfiles won't be generated.
These can be created by hand if you forget.
Nothing from this point on (including future code updates) requires
super-user privileges.
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cd src
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.ft B
If you are merely installing a new version of the code,
type ``touch spool'' now. This tells the makefile that the spool
directories already exist.
.ft P
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make boot.
This is the final step, it should complete with a message
that the system is installed.
An error message when doing the ``mknf -on nfmaint nfgripes''
probaby means you are still super-user.
Don't sweat it; just become notes and type the ``mknf'' command
line over. Everything is now fine.
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You may have to be Super-User for the next step depending on the
modes of your manual directory, /usr/man.
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cd ../man.
[the man page directory for notesfiles]
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make install.
to install the man(I) pages for the notesfile system.
They are placed, by default, in the directories /usr/man/man1,
/usr/man/man3, and /usr/man/man8.
.iz
Examine the ``Samples'' directory for templates of files normally
in the notesfile utility directory.
These files include shell scripts to run through cron(8) which
queue network transmissions, expire old notes, and
map between notesfiles and news.
.iz
Modify UUCP's ``uuxqt.c'' to allow remote execution of ``nfrcv''.
This is unnecessary if no notesfile networking will be done
or if another remote execution mechanism will be used.
Some versions of UUCP have a file ``/etc/uucp/L.cmds''
which contains names of permitted commands.
.iz
Modify /etc/rc to remove notesfile locks at boot time.
[4.2 BSD machines might prefer to use /etc/rc.local.]
Add the command ``rm -f /usr/spool/notes/.locks/*''.
.ez

.a1 "Upgrading Existing Notesfile Databases"

	Revision 1.7 of the notesfile system requires converting
existing notesfile databases to a new format.
A set of programs to accomplish this task are included in the
distribution.
The ``nfdump'' program converts notesfiles into an ASCII representation.
The ``nfload'' program converts this ASCII representation back
into a properly formatted notesfile.
To convert an existing notesfile database, these steps are what I
follow:

.bz
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Compile ``nfdump'' with the OLD notes distribution.
If your version of the software is old enough not to have a copy
of nfdump,
I suggest you either try to adapt the version in the current 
distribution or using the networking programs ``nfxmit'' and ``nfrcv''
to get the information between the old and new databases.
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Compile ``nfload'' with the NEW notes distribution.
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cd /usr/spool/notes
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mkdir .OLD
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mv * .OLD
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run the following script:
.nf
.br
#! /bin/csh -f
foreach i (`ls .OLD`)
  echo $i start
  nfdump-old /usr/spool/notes/.OLD/$i - | nfload-new $i
  echo $i done
end
echo ALL DONE
.fi
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rm -rf .OLD
.ez

	You will also have to convert the sequencer information.
In the ``utility/seq-cvt'' directory there are a pair of programs
``seqtoascii'' and ``seqtobinary''.
To convert the sequencer information:

.bz
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make ``seqtoascii'' using the OLD structs.h and parms.h.
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make ``seqtobinary'' using the NEW structs.h and parms.h.
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cd /usr/spool/notes/.sequencer
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mkdir .OLD
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mv * .OLD
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run this shell script:
.nf
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#!/bin/csh -f
foreach i (`ls .OLD`)
  echo $i
  seqtoascii .OLD/$i | seqtobinary $i
end
echo ALL DONE
.fi
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rm -rf .OLD
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If you are going to use the FULLDOMAIN option, you may want
to go ahead and perform the following steps:
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run this shell script, appropriately modified to reflect
your domain setup.
This one reflects the naming at UIUC.
.nf
.br
#!/bin/csh -f
foreach i (Sy:*)
  echo $i
  ln $i $i.UUCP
  ln $i $i.Uiuc.ARPA
end
echo ALL DONE
.fi
.iz
You have now converted your notesfile database to 1.7 format.
Install the new binaries and fire away.
.ex


.a1 "Hints on Installing Notesfiles on Multiple Systems"

	Notesfile binaries are portable across similar machines.
User-id's and hostnames are determined by examining /etc/passwd
and through system calls.

	To install the Notesfile system on a network of like machines
(a collection of 68000 workstations for example)
one machine must go through the procedure detailed above.
A shell script ``rinstall'' is included in the notesfile
source directory.
This shell script will propagate copies across the network.
Rinstall is a simple script that assumes the correct
hierarchies exist on the target machines.
It was written to use the 4.2 BSD ``rcp'' and ``rsh'' programs
to copy files and remotely execute commands.
Different networking commands will require changes to the shell
script.

	To generate the proper hierarchies on other systems,
copy the Makefile to each of the machines and make both
``base'' and ``spool''.  This will create the proper files
and directories for the notesfile system.
Then return to the master machine and run the rinstall script
to send binaries to each of the other machines.

	The ``Samples'' directory of the Notesfile distribution
contains example cron scripts for sending information between
a network of systems running notesfiles.
These shell scripts can prove helpful in setting up notesfile
transmissions around your local network.

.a1 "Mail to Notesfiles"

	To use the nfmail program with the 4.1 BSD /etc/delivermail
or the 4.2 BSD /usr/sbin/sendmail
insert lines of the following form in the file /etc/aliases.

.in +1i
.nf
somenotes: ``|/usr/spool/notes/.utilities/nfmail somenotes''
gripes: ``|/usr/spool/notes/.utilities/nfmail problems''
.fi
.in

.a1 "The Notesfiles/News Gateway"

	The notesfile/news gateway may need a little more tickling to
convince it to work properly. For more information on how to set this
up properly, see section 3.5 (``Interfacing to News'') and look at
the file `Src/newsgate.h'.
Appendix B (``Interfacing Notesfiles to News'')
is another source of information for connecting the two systems.