Welcome to patch number 7 for NNTP 1.5.

	If you have not installed the first six patches, you must do so
	before proceeding. You can get those patches (and this one) from
	anoymous ftp on bcm.tmc.edu [128.249.2.1] or by sending a message
	to the archive-server@bcm.tmc.edu with the following text:
	send public nntp.patch.1
	send public nntp.patch.2
	send public nntp.patch.3
	send public nntp.patch.4.shar
	send public nntp.patch.5.shar
	send public nntp.patch.6.shar

	If you have all six patches installed, you are ready to install
	this set of patches. These patches are packaged as a shell archive.
	They are as follows:
	CHANGES.diff  -- This will patch the CHANGES file in the root
	of the nntp distrbution to reflect changes since the release of 1.5.
	To install, just type patch < CHANGES.diff
	server.diff -- This patch is for the files in the server subdirectory.
	To install, change directory to the server directory and type
	patch < server.diff.
	common.diff -- This patch is for the files in the common subdirectory.
	To install, change directory to the common directory and type
	patch < common.diff
	support.diff -- This is a patch for nntp_awk in the support directory.
	To install, change directory to the support directory and type
	patch < support.diff.
	xfer.diff -- This is a patch for nntpxfer.c in the xfer directory.
	To install, change directory to the xfer directory and type
	patch < xfer.diff.
	xmit.diff -- This is a patch for nntpxmit.h and nntpxmit.c in the xfer
	directory. To install, change directory to the xmit directory and type
	patch < xmit.diff.
	inews.diff -- This patch is for the files in the inews subdirectory.
	To install, change directory to the inews directory and type
	patch < inews.diff.
	
Please read the CHANGES file (following application of the patch) for
a list of new features/bug fixes. This is mostly a bug fix release.

Bug reports and enhancements welcome,
Stan Barber
sob@bcm.tmc.edu

P.S. This patched version of NNTP has been compiled on the following systems:

Vax 3600 running Ultrix 2.2 (BNEWS 2.11.19)
Unisys 5000/40 running System V release 2 (BNEWS 2.11.17)

It has also been tested by the fine folks at the University of Toronto to
test compatibility with CNEWS. Special thanks to Sandra Smith.

P.P.S. 1.5.8 will be out sometime around Christmas/New Year's. It will have
some new features that came in too late for me to test them for this patch.
Look for an announcement about 1.5.8 in news.software.nntp around Thanksgiving.
Those include patches to nntpxmit to use Message-IDs in the batch file versus
filenames, inode checking in addition to space checking, and better heuristics
for rejecting news articles that have already been seen and expired.

P.P.P.S. Brian Kantor has already started a discussion on new protocol features
for NNTP. Please drop me a line so I can track the ideas. Hopefully we can
start some prototype testing in the Spring.

P.P.P.P.S. [getting ridiculous, eh?] I will be posting a revised collection
of patches for RN that will replace the ones in the 1.5 distibution. These
patches will allow RN and RRN to be built from the same sources. I am in the
process of working with Larry Wall to determine if these will be offical or
not.

