Description of the changes from release 1.6c to 1.6d of LISTSERV -------------------------------------------------------------- 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).