A beta-version of release 1.5o has been distributed to a small number of sites, for a short testing period. Release 1.5o contains the following changes from 1.5n: - Everything that was in the 15N1 and 15N2 fix shipments, which ought to have been installed everywhere a long time ago. - The dynamic disk access code, and subsequent fixes, which have already been beta-tested on a wide scale. I'll try to remember to post a description of these new functions to the list. - A new COUNTRY FILE to reflect the country-code changes in BITEARN NODES. - Changes to make DIST2 the "default" DISTRIBUTE processor: o DIST2 is now used for all types of "internal" distribution (PUT command, LISTS database, AFD "batch" distribution, etc). o Files sent to a list operating with "Files= Yes" are now processed by DIST2. o "Mail-via= DISTRIBUTE" is now an exact synonym of "Mail-via= DIST2". A new option, "Mail-via= DIST1", forces the use of the old processor. o The DISTRIBUTE command, when received from a "user" (ie not a LISTSERV), now invokes the DIST2 processor. The DIST2 command will remain available, while a new command, DIST1, will force the use of the old processor. A "DISTRIBUTE" command from a LISTSERV machine is treated as DIST1, for compatiblity with those servers which are still running 1.5n (or older). - Changes for VM/XA SP support. Please note that VM/XA SF is not (and will never be) supported. Since almost everything has already been seriously tested a few months ago, 1.5o will be distributed to everybody in a few days, if nothing wrong happens at the hub sites (eg CEARN and DEARN) where it is now running. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I know that I had "promised" more new things for 1.5o, and that I had also promised to finish it earlier. I have received a number of private notes expressing concern about the future of LISTSERV and asking when 1.5o would be released, and I would like to answer them here to save time. First, I find these questions perfectly normal, and anger is not the reason why I didn't answer or made very short answers when I did. I simply didn't have time, and will probably not have any time at all for a number of days. Some smart ass in the CERN administrative service discovered that my sponsor was paying me more money than I could ever get if I were a CERN employee, considering my age (here people are paid according to their age and number of children, not productivity - it's supposed to be less immoral, although I have always failed to understand that logic). If he had been clever, he would have concluded that this is the reason why I'm not a CERN employee, and dropped the matter since this is not CERN's money anyway and CERN has absolutely no control on how it is spent. Instead of that, he declared that this was immoral and froze 3 months' worth of payment orders, which were slowly wandering through the CERN administration on their way to the bank. I've been working full time 5 days a week on getting the money back for about 1 week, and the problem is far from being solved. CERN has a wonderful administrative system where some of the people work only during the morning and some of them work only during the afternoon; of course, you need the help (read rubber stamps) of both to get any work done, so that it takes 2 days to see 2 persons and learn they were not the ones you had to see. Anyway, what little time is left to me is usually spent on the work I'm "paid" for, wonderful SNA-SNI network reconstructions, meetings, plus CEARN HDA problems and of course, the Daily EARNTECH Flame :-) The future of LISTSERV is not affected by the withdrawal of my support to EARN, except as far as EARN nodes are concerned. That is, I will keep maintaining LISTSERV as long as I remain on the network, will make the updates available to EARN sites to avoid creating large-scale release compatibility problems, but will NOT make LISTSERV available to new EARN sites and will NOT help EARN postmasters to solve their local problems. To answer a question I heard several times, I am not IBM and I will not stop providing source code to EARN sites "just to be nasty". The future of LISTSERV might, however, be affected by the CERN administrative system, which is why I told you the whole boring story. By the way I apologize if you felt that my description implied that the CERN administration is worse than the one you have to deal with for your own money :-) I really didn't mean to say that, although I do sometimes get this impression :-) Anyway, it now seems quite likely that CERN is allowed to and will refuse to be involved in the payment of my salary, which would mean we'd have to find another way out, like sending the money to Caltech (my official employer) and thence back into my bank account (the sponsor can't pay directly for legal reasons). This would be very likely to take a few months to be set up, and if this happens I am VERY likely to be extremely pissed off at CERN and anything related to payment delays, if that were not already the case. My chances of deciding to keep my present job would then be very low, which might imply that I could go and work in a place where I would be paid at the end of the month (EVERY month), but which might not be connected to EARN (with which I am considerably pissed off, as you know), thus making it difficult to work on LISTSERV. Eric