1EXPIRE.CTL(5)             InterNetNews Documentation             EXPIRE.CTL(5)
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NAME

6       expire.ctl - Configuration file for article expiration
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DESCRIPTION

9       The file pathetc/expire.ctl is the default configuration file for
10       expire and expireover, which read it at start-up.  It serves two
11       purposes:  it defines how long history entries for expired or rejected
12       articles are remembered, and it determines how long articles stored on
13       the server are retained.
14
15       Normally, if all of the storage methods used by the server are self-
16       expiring (such as CNFS), all lines except the "/remember/" setting
17       (described below) are ignored.  This can be changed with the -N option
18       to expire or expireover.
19
20       Blank lines and lines beginning with a number sign ("#") are ignored.
21       All other lines should be in one of two formats.  The order of the file
22       is significant, and the last matching entry will be used.
23
24       The first format specifies how long to keep history entries for
25       articles that aren't present in the news spool.  These are articles
26       that have either already expired, or articles which the server rejected
27       (when remembertrash is set to true in inn.conf).  There should be one
28       and only one line in this format, which looks like:
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30           /remember/:<days>
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32       where <days> is a decimal number that specifies the minimum number of
33       days a history record for a given message-ID is retained (from its
34       original posting time), regardless of whether the article is present in
35       the spool.  (History entries for articles still present in the spool
36       are always retained.)
37
38       The primary reason to retain a record of old articles is in case a peer
39       offers old articles that were previously accepted but have already
40       expired.  Without a history record for such articles, the server would
41       accept the article again and readers would see duplicate articles.
42       Articles older than a certain number of days won't be accepted by the
43       server at all (see artcutoff in inn.conf(5) and the -c flag in
44       innd(8)), and this setting should probably match that time period to
45       ensure that the server never accepts duplicates.  As the default value
46       for artcutoff is 10 days, it means that "/remember/" should be set to
47       11 days in order to take into account articles whose posting date is
48       one day into the future.
49
50       Most of the lines in this file will be in the second format, which
51       consists of either four or five colon-separated fields:
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53           <pattern>:<flag>:<min>:<default>:<max>
54
55       if groupbaseexpiry is true in inn.conf (the default), and otherwise:
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57           <classnum>:<min>:<default>:<max>
58
59       All lines must be in the correct format given the current setting of
60       groupbaseexpiry, and therefore the two formats cannot co-exist in the
61       same file.
62
63       Normally, a rule matches a newsgroup through the combination of the
64       <pattern> and <flag> fields.  <pattern> is a uwildmat(3)-style pattern,
65       specifying the newsgroups to which the line is applied.  Note that the
66       last matching entry will be used, so general patterns (such as defaults
67       for all groups where <pattern> is "*") should appear at the beginning
68       of the file before more specific settings.
69
70       The <flag> field can be used to further limit newsgroups to which the
71       line applies, and should be chosen from the following set:
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73           M   Only moderated groups
74           U   Only unmoderated groups
75           A   All groups
76           X   Remove the article from all groups it appears in
77
78       One of "M", "U", or "A" must be specified.  "X" should be used in
79       combination with one of the other letters, not by itself.
80
81       An expiration policy is applied to every article in a newsgroup it
82       matches.  There is no way to set an expiration policy for articles
83       crossposted to groups you don't carry that's different than other
84       articles in the same group.  Normally, articles are not completely
85       deleted until they expire out of every group to which they were posted,
86       but if an article is expired following a rule where <flag> contains
87       "X", it is deleted out of all newsgroups to which it was posted
88       immediately.
89
90       If groupbaseexpiry is instead set to false, there is no <pattern> and
91       <flag> field and the above does not apply.  Instead, there is a single
92       <classnum> field, which is either a number matching the storage class
93       number specified in storage.conf or "*" to specify a default for all
94       storage classes.  All articles stored in a storage class will be
95       expired following the instructions in the line with a matching
96       <classnum>, and when articles are expired, they're always removed from
97       all groups to which they were posted.
98
99       The remaining three fields are the same in either format, and are used
100       to determine how long an article should be kept from its original
101       arrival time (unless the -p flag is passed to expire(8) or
102       expireover(8), in which case its original posting time is used).  Each
103       field should be either a decimal number of days (fractions like 8.5 are
104       allowed, but remember that articles are only removed when expire or
105       expireover is run, normally once a day by news.daily) or the word
106       "never".
107
108       The middle field, <default>, will be used as the expiration period for
109       most articles.  The other two fields, <min> and <max>, only come into
110       play if the article requests a particular expiration date with an
111       Expires: header.  Articles with an Expires: header will be expired at
112       the date given in that header, subject to the constraints that they
113       will be retained at least <min> days and no longer than <max> days.
114
115       If <min> is set to "never", no article matching that line will ever be
116       expired.  If <default> is set to "never", no article matching that line
117       without an explicit Expires: header will ever be expired.  If <max> is
118       set to "never", Expires: headers will be honored no matter how far into
119       the future they are.
120
121       One should think of the fields as a lower bound, the default, and an
122       upper bound.  Since most articles do not have an Expires: header, the
123       second field is the most important and most commonly applied.
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125       Articles that do not match any expiration rule will not be expired, but
126       this is considered an error and will result in a warning.  There should
127       always be a default line (a line with a <pattern> of "*" and <flag> of
128       "A", or a line with a <classnum> of "*"), which can explicitly state
129       that articles should never expire by default if that's the desired
130       configuration.  The default line should generally be the first line of
131       the file (except for "/remember/") so that other expiration rules can
132       override it.
133
134       It is often useful to honor the Expires: header in articles, especially
135       those in moderated groups.  To do this, set <min> to zero, <default> to
136       whatever normal expiration you wish, and <max> to "never" or some large
137       number, like 365 days for a maximum article life of a year.
138
139       To ignore any Expires: header, set all three fields to the same value.
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EXAMPLES

142       When groupbaseexpiry is true (the default):
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144           # Keep expired article history for 11 days, matching artcutoff plus one.
145           /remember/:11
146
147           # Most articles stay for two weeks, ignoring Expires: headers.
148           *:A:14:14:14
149
150           # Accept Expires: headers in moderated groups for up to a year and
151           # retain moderated groups for a bit longer.
152           *:M:1:30:365
153
154           # Keep local groups for a long time and local project groups forever.
155           example.*:A:1:90:90
156           example.project.*:A:never:never:never
157
158       When groupbaseexpiry is false, for class-based expiration:
159
160           # Keep expired article history for 11 days, matching artcutoff plus one.
161           /remember/:11
162
163           # Set a default expiration of seven days and honour Expires: headers
164           # within reasonable limits.
165           *:1:7:35
166
167           # Class 0 is retained for two weeks and honor Expires: headers
168           # within reasonable limits.
169           0:1:14:65
170

HISTORY

172       Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  Converted
173       to POD by Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>.
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175       $Id: expire.ctl.pod 9767 2014-12-07 21:13:43Z iulius $
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SEE ALSO

178       expire(8), expireover(8), inn.conf(5), innd(8), news.daily(8),
179       storage.conf(5), uwildmat(3).
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183INN 2.6.3                         2015-09-12                     EXPIRE.CTL(5)
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