RE: [pimppa-users] I must be dense...
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From: LASZLO A. <la...@no...> - 2006-05-31 14:23:12
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As a further note, I did find that there _are_ other tools out there - = though not many at all and I had to look deep... Your note telling me = to take a look at the competitors prompted me to make a few googles on = key words like "linux news leech", "linux news reader", "usenet file = grabber", etc... I found at least one potential candidate in a list of two: BNR - Binary = News Reaper (www.bnr2.org) - seems to be a more mature application than = PIMPPA; KLibido - KDE version looks very similar to XNews in Windows (I = haven't seen this one in operation and it's not what I'm looking for = from what I can tell by the homepage and screenshots) Laz -----Original Message----- From: LASZLO ACS Sent: Tue 5/30/2006 10:07 AM To: Igor Wronsky Cc: pim...@li... Subject: RE: [pimppa-users] I must be dense... =20 Thanks, Igor, for your reply. Since writing, I did figure out the source of my confusion. It seemed = that since I had tried using the Ubuntu "Synaptic" GUI to give me joy, = and when that didn't happen from the initial 1st attempt in running = Bowser by popping up an error message, I dug a little into the web and = found your site to discover the "README" document. The references your = README document made to SETUP confused me since I didn't find that file = in my system. Getting MySQL up and running was a piece of cake; after = that, I assumed clicking on and running Bowser would detect whether = MySQL was running and take care of whatever was necessary to get the = user up and running with the software. No joy... I still got the same = error message as before. I returned to the README file and perused it = with a fine-toothed comb (ya know how hard this is with nappy and = tangled substrates???)... I searched for the files on my machine, = eventually locating some of the scripts in a directory called "pimppa" = (amazingly familiar). There I found "create_database.sql" - hmmm... = viewing the file in my fav editor, I got some insight to what was next. = I ran the script, it failed but gave me a useful error message [One of = the things I absolutely abhor about the monopoly, M$, is the complete = lack of information provided to the end-user with useless error messages = and no intutive way to view the system to debug stuff...] letting me = know I hadn't created the initial "god" MySQL user. Re-running the = script after remedying this - it WORKED! I could log into MySQL or use = the GUI, "Query Browser", to see the new "pimppa" database and the new = tables created.=20 Now, I'm thinking to myself, I should be able to run Bowser. And sure = enough, it loads without error. I go into its "preferences" and make = some 'intelligent' choices for configuring NNTP, etc. I setup a = newsgroup where I know there are a very small number of files just to = test whether this will download anything. I fire it off, up pops a = terminal-like window letting me know what's happening - but it doesn't = show anything happening after finding the group (long story - turns out = there is a problem with Ubuntu and the GUI window - there's a lot of = seg-faults and other issues using Bowser on Ubuntu [I'm running Dapper = Beta, bleeding edge, so I kinda expect some problems...]). After quite = some time, I go back into non-GUI mode and see if I can figure out = what's happening. Looking through the files in the "pimppa" directory = 'cat'ing every file that I can, I discover the 'pleech' command and try = 'pleech --help' to discover this is a tool to invoke the downloading of = files. I run 'pleech -v' with no other arguments assuming (correctly, = in this case, I've learned later) this will do the same thing Bowser did = - sure enough, I got the same messages and data I saw in the = Bowser-spawned output window. Only this time, I saw that during the = initial parsing there was an area being updated with progress numbers = that didn't display in the Bowser-spawn. I also noted behavior and = determined there was a set of phases that was significantly different = than the tool I had been familiar with in the Windows world. [Side note = - there is a tool (SBNews, have used this product for over 6 years) I = can fire from the NT command-line AT scheduler that I really liked in = the past but since I've now completely eliminated Winders products from = most of my home net, I was looking for something similar and hopefully = better in the open-source world. This win tool had quite a usable GUI = for configuration setting and could be used for leeching, but that = wasn't it's prime purpose - it was a tool to be fired from the = commandline and just run until it sucked down all the latest files (all = of the new ones since the last time the tool was run) and quit. I lived = with all the duplicates and garbage files, wasting tons of time making = tons of scripts and stuff to combat elimination of all this chaff. but, = all in all, it worked. I had to turn it off from time to time due to = running out of disk space before having time to go through the files = determining what I wanted to keep and what to trash, what was good, what = was incomplete, what was junk - and then burning the "good stuff" off to = CD... Ah, those were the days - I now have hundreds of CDs, hundreds of = Gigs of useless, outdated stuff that was great state-of-art stuff back = then... But, I digress...] So, I "saw" my initial attempt in config actually work, I saw articles = flash by in the logging data and I saw that all articles were flagged as = "NO MATCH" and ultimately saw that one file did download, the database = got updated. So, at this point I knew I had it working, but this tool = was a "black box" for the moment and I knew I needed to dig further. = Also, I noted from initially visiting your 'Sourceforge' site, the = version I'm running downloaded from some Ubuntu place was 0.5.7 and that = 'Sourceforge' site had 0.5.8 available. After downloading the source = from your site and extracting the contents, I was able to ascend the = ranks of enlightenment!!! I found the text file, 'SETUP' that gave me = all the background and infrastructure information I needed to 'properly' = configure the data contained in the pimppa tables and all the = definitions and descriptions and options I need to use the software from = the command-line. It was the elusive SETUP file I needed all along!!! =20 I have now been up and running, happily leeching away while I sleep, as = it were :). This tool IS what I was looking for and it did take some = rocket science in getting it going - only because the GUI wasn't as = useful as I assumed it to be and the initial error message confounding. = I feel amazed I was able to get something to work before I actually = broke down, downloaded the latest source, and found the SETUP file. As = to whether there are better open-source tools out there - I haven't = found any... I suppose newsgroups are not in the realm of popularity as = peer-to-peer stuff like Kazaa, Azureus and Torrents... Thanks for the time and effort you took in creating this tool. Perhaps, = when I have a little time from my research and life's obligations, I'll = assist in creating better documentation so the next person would have to = go through the frustration I did to begin with (one of my many titles is = "technical writer"...). Cheers back at you, Laz -----Original Message----- From: Igor Wronsky [mailto:iwr...@us...] Sent: Sat 5/27/2006 8:48 AM To: LASZLO ACS Cc: pim...@li... Subject: Re: [pimppa-users] I must be dense... =20 On Wed, 24 May 2006, LASZLO ACS wrote: > So, I guess this is one of those rocket-science tools where ya gotta = be > a whiz-bang genius geek or something. I do some searching (my soul and > elsewhere), finally stumbling upon your PIMPPA home on the web. I = look > at the site for a while, stumbling on a page that holds the "READ ME" > document - GASP! This looks really complicated... > I guess I'll need to take a vacation to get this working... As usually is the case with open source software, I made it for my own use originally, and slick setup wasn't one of the most important design criteria. :) For those who know their way around Linux, its not too difficult. The text file SETUP included in the original distribution archive (from pimppa.sourceforge.net, for example) contains step-by-step instructions for the installation starting from the compilation of the source code. When it comes to distros like Ubuntu, I'm happy if its accessible from them, but I feel its the role of the package maintainers to make the installation procedure compatible with the general way of doing things in the resp. distribution, or, to provide a small piece of documentation how the package is actually made to work there. I'm not currently personally maintaining any binary packages for any distribution. > I sure would appreciate a bit of assistance from someone having a = sense > of humor and patience while I continue to stumble through ... One thing that comes to mind is that many drops of water have passed under the bridges of the world since I originally coded PIMPPA. It could be that there are sexier and easier to use software packages available for news-harvesting today. I haven't checked lately, I still run pimppa by CRON and I'm reasonably happy with it. But it might be a good idea to take a look at the competitors. I tried to provide some links on pimppa homepage to other similar software, but I don't know if they're the state of the art any more. :) Cheers, Igor |