[Mailman-Developers] news to mail gatewaying problem...

Ronald A. Jarrell jarrell@babylon5.cc.vt.edu
Wed, 11 Aug 1999 18:41:05 -0400


This is actually a python bug, but it breaks mailman.

The news to mail gateway stuff won't (can't in fact) work when mailman
and the news server are the same machine (or if mailman is running on a
machine with transfer privs to the news server), and the news server is
INN.

Apparently python's nntplib hasn't been updated in a LONG time; every
other major library out there knows to issue a "mode reader" before
trying to do anything as a reader on an inn server.  It doesn't hurt if
you're already in reader mode; it's vital if you aren't.  A feeder
connects to the inn daemon; which doesn't understand reader commands.
"mode reader" causes it to fork off an nnrpd daemon which DOES
understand reader commands...

Which kinda stinks, since one of the main reasons I put mailman up
on the news server was to replace the homebrew gateway stuff I was
running...  Sigh.