Description of the changes from release 1.6c to 1.6d of LISTSERV
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January 3rd, 1990
***********
* Warning *
***********
The planned availability of release 1.6d of LISTSERV was the week of
December 11th-15th, but it was decided to postpone the distribution until
the first week of January, because of the Christmas holidays.
The following description applies to the beta-test programme, which has
been started on December 1st; minor design changes or additions of new
functions can be made before the final version is released. In order to
save network bandwidth, this document will probably not be re-posted in
its final form to the LSTSRV-M list; instead, a smaller file listing the
changes made to it will be sent, so that, in order to obtain the current
description of the changes from release 1.6c to 1.6d, you should search
the LSTSRV-M archives for all items with a subject starting with "Changes
from Release 1.6c to 1.6d".
****************
* Requirements *
****************
LISTSERV release 1.6d is supported on any hardware/operating system
configuration supporting release 1.6c.
For political reasons, release 1.6 of LISTSERV is available only to
BITNET and NetNorth sites, and to selected EARN sites which have
explicitly requested to obtain it (contact ERIC@LEPICS for more
information). Other EARN sites now receive support for the EARN version
of LISTSERV from Turgut Kalfaoglu <TURGUT@TREARN>, to whom EARN users
should address any and all inquiries regarding LISTSERV.
*****************
* Compatibility *
*****************
Release 1.6d is compatible with 1.6c, with the exception of the usual
minor changes in messages et al. It is to be installed directly on top of
the base 1.6c version.
********************************
* Minor fixes and enhancements *
********************************
This section contains a brief description of all the "small yet not
unimportant worries" that have been fixed in release 1.6d, along with the
affected releases, if known ("All" meaning "any release in which the
facility is available", ie the problem was present since the very
beginning).
Minor enhancements which do not warrant a detailed description are also
included; they are all located at the bottom of the list, and can be
identified by the word "New" in the "Affected releases" column.
Finally, changes which might introduce compatibility problems are flagged
with one asterisk for minor problems (change in a message or in the
output of some commands originally designed for human readers rather than
programs, but which some people might still have decided to feed to
programs), or two asterisks for more serious problems, for which a
detailed description will always be provided further on.
Affected
releases Description of the bug, problem or enhancement
-------- ----------------------------------------------
All Incorrect handling of the IN clause of the SEARCH database
command when parenthesis are used. Fixed.
All Non-BITNET addresses incorrectly upcased in LSVPW (PW and PWC
commands). Fixed.
All Problems with DISK DUMP format files under VM/XA - LSVDDFID
did not work at all under VM/XA. Fixed.
All Invalid recipient addresses discarded without warning in
DIST2. Fixed to generate error message.
All DIST2 MAIL rejected when address in 'From:' field in lower
case or in 'domain' form (eg 'x@y', [log in to unmask]).
Fixed to ignore case and respect MYDOMAIN system variable.
All Wrong date in database index for lists with SEPARATE notebook
keeping option. Fixed.
All Trailing '.BITNET' not removed on target addresses for DELETE
command, resulting in no match when user is indeed subscribed
to list. Fixed.
All Trailing '.BITNET' not removed on target addresses for ADD
command, making it possible for addresses in LIST files to
appear with or without '.BITNET', looking inconsistent to the
human reader. Fixed.
All CARD returned rc=0 after PUNCH error. Fixed.
* All Problems with ONLINE and OFFLINE commands when auto-offline
(OFFLINETHR exceeded) occurs: ambiguous messages, server
stays in permanent offline mode after reboot. Fixed - local
procedures might need to be updated if they relied on
auto-offline to have permanent effect.
All Loop in LSVXMAIL and LSVDIST2 with some types of valid RFC822
addresses. Fixed.
All Archive ("notebook") file closed after writing each RFC822
header line in LSVXMAIL, causing serious performance
degradation with long headers. Fixed to close file only once,
upon exit.
All Obsolete information from previous version of BITEARN NODES
might be kept in NODEINFO GLOBALV group after NODESGEN is run
(either manually or automatically). Fixed.
All Problem under CMS6 with Netdata files because of incompatible
DMSDDL default options. Fixed because an easy solution was
possible - CMS6 is still not formally supported.
All Problem with BSMTP MAIL FROM - '.BITNET' not always appended
to 'MAIL FROM:' field, resulting in incorrect messages to the
user ("New mail from [log in to unmask]") and failure
to direct delivery error notifications to the proper address.
'.BITNET' is now appended to BSMTP 'MAIL FROM:'; 'Sender:'
field in header of list mail left unchanged for compatibility
reasons.
All "Ack=" option ignored for "Mail-via=DISTRIBUTE" lists,
resulting in interactive message regardless of the specified
acknowledgement option. Fixed.
All LISTSERV was unable to deliver mail via BSMTP to recipients
with very long addresses, due to a restriction of BSMTP.
Fixed to use the X'15' continuation convention of MAILER V2
(no effect on MAILER V1 sites where the recipient will be
rejected anyway).
1.6c Problem with moderated lists fed from the Internet by a
'daemon' listed in the 'Editor=' field: with some types of
RFC822 headers, the 'From:' field was filled in with the
address of the 'daemon' rather than that of the actual mail
originator. Fixed.
1.6c LISTSERV incorrectly complained about the unavailability of
VERS9001 due to the change from the VERSyymm convention to
VERSyynn (for instance VERS8913 is the 89/12 file). Algorithm
changed to support the new convention.
1.5 Compatibility problem for moderated peered lists where editor
forwards accepted mail back to list and some peers are under
control of release 1.5 caused [log in to unmask]
addresses to replace actual origin. Fixed.
New Database index now automatically refreshed when an I/O error
occurs during execution of a database PRINT command.
New LSVDIST2, LSVXMAIL, LSVXSTAT and LSV822IN now EXECLOADed by
default to improve performance of backbone servers.
* New Notebook database code changed to exclude meaningless "equal
signs banner" from database entries (design change for
consistency with SEPARATE notebook lists and to save network
bandwidth). Migration exec will refresh all notebook
databases to avoid inconsistencies between old and new
entries.
* New SHOW command displays offline status, and reason (manual vs
auto-induced offline).
New REMAP option added to REFRESH command to allow postmaster
(only) to manually force remapping normally done during
inter-release migration process.
New Information about failing job (origin, type, spool fileid)
now provided on DIST2 error reports sent to LISTSERV
Coordination.
New LISTFOWN MEMO modified to recommend contacting Ben Chi for a
copy of his "cookbook" on file server functions. LISTFOWN
MEMO will not be written before version 2.0.
New LISTUDD MEMO (UDD User's Guide) and LISTUDDA MEMO (UDD
Administrator's Guide) added to INFO FILELIST, LISTDOC
PACKAGE and made available via the INFO command.
New Startup warning about lack of UCENG repository removed. AMENG
is now an officially supported environment.
New Warning message issued at startup if operating under CMS
Release 6, or with SET FULLSCREEN ON; RELEASE and SHOW
commands now display a message if the server is running in an
unsupported environment.
* New CMS Release now determined by looking at the CMSPROG field in
NUCON, to avoid problems with CMS 5.5 (whose non-integer
level was improperly equated to CMS 5). Early users of CMS
5.6 might experience a problem until IBM changes its CMSPROG
value back to X'08'.
* New Disconnected status now determined via diag X'24' rather than
by examining the output of a 'QUERY USER <myself>' command,
which greatly varies from one system to another.
New Error notification for disabled (SERVEd OFF) user attempting
to send mail to distribution list now sent to list owner,
rather than postmaster; message still goes to postmaster when
mail is sent to LISTSERV userid rather than list.
New Mail loop detection logic enhanced to recognize JANET-type
addresses (ie 'EARN.xxx' == 'xxx.BITNET').
*************************************************************************
* Important note: CARD MODULE now serviced as other LISTSERV components *
*************************************************************************
Since the inception of the INSTALL facility, which allows LISTSERV
service to be distributed all throughout the network and installed by the
local staff with a minimal amount of human intervention, LISTSERV has
been heavily relying on the very useful CARD utility from Cornell
University. Besides its obvious utilization in sending files to users who
have requested CARD DUMP format, CARD plays an important role in the
LISTSERV service procedure as CARD DUMP format is also used in the
distribution of LISTSERV fixes, because of its much greater "compactness"
than the standard, but inefficient, DISK DUMP.
Unfortunately CARD has proved to be very sensitive to the release of CMS
in which it is running: an update was necessary when CMS Release 4 came
out, and the same happened for CMS 5 and then 5.5. Although Cornell has,
so far, always provided updates for new releases of CMS in a timely
fashion, these updates are regretfully not always backward compatible:
the CMS 5.5 version of CARD, for example, will not run under CMS 5 (and
vice-versa).
CARD had been originally considered as a "foreign" utility, as far as
LISTSERV is concerned, in that it was originally shipped to new LISTSERV
sites (in case they did not already have a copy), and the site was then
responsible for updating it whenever they migrated to a new release of
CMS. This decision, dictated mostly by the desire to make it clear that
CARD had been written by Cornell University, to whom both credit and
complaints should go, proved to be unfortunate. When CMS release 4 came
out, a few years ago, a lot of postmasters forgot to update their version
of CARD, despite repeated warnings; since the CMS release 3 version could
corrupt minidisks if ran under CMS release 4, this created serious
problems at some sites, resulting in a lot of wasted time both for the
sites and for LISTSERV Coordination.
Today, the sheer number of different versions of CARD (some nodes are
known to have concurrently used up to 5!) proves to be a serious source
of confusion for new LISTSERV sites, especially those which are
undergoing a VM/XA migration and need both the CMS 5.5 and CMS 4 or 5
version. There are probably some servers which still run the CMS 3
version of the program, and there are definitely overwhelmed postmasters
who forget to switch back to the CMS 4 version when CMS 5.5 testing time
is over. Finally, the "official" version of CARD contains a minor bug
(return code left set to 0 in case of punch error) which can have a
disastrous impact on backbone LISTSERVs, as it causes DISTRIBUTE jobs to
be irretrievably lost if the spool gets full. Although Cornell will
probably provide an official fix for this problem, it is very likely that
a lot of sites will forget to install it, in much the same way as it
there were a lot of sites which ran for years with the CMS 3 version
under CMS 4.
To avoid this kind of problems, it was decided that CARD would now be
serviced as if it were part of the LISTSERV code, with the understanding
that this is not the case, as noted above. The version that is being
distributed contains modifications by the author of LISTSERV, which
implement the following enhancements:
1. Support, with a single MODULE, for all versions of CMS from 3 to 5.5
(the latter in both 370 and XA machines, with the AMODE 24 RMODE 24
restriction for XA machines).
2. Shorten CP command constants to allow the module to run in the
transient area (8k limit).
3. Allow a filemode of "*" to be specified if neither fn nor ft contain
an "*" (this is required by the SLAC batch system, and may be used in
future releases of LISTSERV).
4. Change all messages to lowercase.
5. Set return code to 100 on error from DMSCIOSI (ie error writing to
virtual punch).
It should be clearly noted that the version of CARD that is distributed
with LISTSERV is NOT the "official" version from Cornell University,
which bears no responsibility for any possible problem with the
modifications described above. However, this version has been running in
production on the LEPICS machine, where it is heavily used by users of
SLAC batch, for over 6 months. The previous statement should not be
construed as implying that any warranty of any kind is offered for the
modifications in question - as with the rest of CARD, use at your own
risk!
**********************************************************
* Important note: CARD now available from TOOLS FILELIST *
**********************************************************
Following numerous user requests, the version of CARD described above is
now being made available from TOOLS FILELIST. However, the copyright
instructions for CARD require that the source code be made available,
upon request, to any person who has been sent the object code. This
prevents LISTSERV from making CARD MODULE available unless it also has
the associated source files, which is, of course, not the case for OCO
sites.
CARD MODULE has been added to TOOLS FILELIST and placed under the control
of a File Access Validation Exit, which will refuse any GET or AFD/FUI
ADD request unless the source code is present on an accessed disk. All
LISTSERV sites with a source license are kindly invited to place CARD
ASSEMBLE and CARD UPDATES from the ASM16D shipment on a disk to which
LISTSERV has at least R/O access; this will make it possible for LISTSERV
to deliver the software to interested users. Once this is done, you
should issue a 'TELL LISTSERV REFRESH TOOLS (REMAP' command; this is a
one-time-only command which you will not need to repeat for each new
release.
Finally, it should be noted that the new CARD UPDATES file contains all
the updates that were previously sent, as individual files, in the ASM
shipment. The source shipments of releases 1.6b and 1.6c erroneously
included the source code and updates corresponding to the version of CARD
that is being shipped with 1.6d, although the corresponding object code
had never been shipped (except to new sites).
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