extension to L (local) flag in sys file

[roger long]

> Some time ago, someone posted an enhancement to news to allow an
> extension of the "L" flag in the sys file to say that articles
> from "close" neighbors, as well as articles generated locally,
> should be passed on to the other neighbors.  For example,
> 	nsc:net,fa,usa,na,ca,ba,mod,to.nsc:BFL2:/usr/spool/batch/nsc
> should send on articles that have been generated locally, as well
> as those generated within 2 hops.  I put in this change, but it seems
> as though the number doesn't make a difference.  ALL of our neighbors
> get our articles and those of our one-hop neighbors, REGARDLESS of
> whether their sys line has L0, L1, or L2.
> 
> Has anyone else experienced similar problems?  Any fixes or alternate
> ways to get the same effect?
> -- 
> Ken Turkowski @ CADLINC, Menlo Park, CA

As I was the "someone", I worked with Ken for a bit and did discover
a small problem in the change.  If you add the following indicated
lines to the previous patch, you'll find that if you just specify "L"
in the sys file, inews will act as it did before, only forwarding
locally generated articles.

----------
	if (local) {		/* allow local to mean within 'n' hops */
		++ptr;
		if (isdigit(*ptr))
			local = *ptr - '0';
       +	else
       +		local = 0;
		for (ptr = h.path; *ptr != '\0'; local--)
			while (*ptr++ != '\0')
				;
		if (local < 0) {
			fclose(ifp);
			return FALSE;
		}
	}
----------
-- 
	roger long
	pertec computer corp
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