1DOCHECKGROUPS(8)          InterNetNews Documentation          DOCHECKGROUPS(8)
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NAME

6       docheckgroups - Process checkgroups and output a list of changes
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SYNOPSIS

9       docheckgroups [-u] [include-pattern [exclude-pattern]]
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DESCRIPTION

12       docheckgroups is usually run by controlchan in order to process
13       checkgroups control messages.  It reads a list of newsgroups along with
14       their descriptions on its standard input.  That list should be
15       formatted like the newsgroups(5) file:  each line contains the name of
16       a newsgroup followed by one or more tabulations and its description.
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18       docheckgroups will only check the presence of newsgroups which match
19       include-pattern (an egrep expression like "^comp\..*$" for newsgroups
20       starting with "comp.") and which do not match exclude-pattern (also an
21       egrep expression) except for newsgroups mentioned in the
22       pathetc/localgroups file.  This file is also formatted like the
23       newsgroups(5) file and should contain local newsgroups which would
24       otherwise be mentioned for removal.  There is no need to put local
25       newsgroups of hierarchies for which no checkgroups control messages are
26       sent, unless you manually process checkgroups texts for them.  Lines
27       beginning with a hash sign ("#") are not taken into account in this
28       file.  All the newsgroups and descriptions mentioned in
29       pathetc/localgroups are appended to the processed checkgroups.
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31       If exclude-pattern is given, include-pattern should also be given
32       before (you can use an empty string ("") if you want to include all the
33       newsgroups).  Be that as it may, docheckgroups will only check
34       newsgroups in the top-level hierarchies which are present in the
35       checkgroups.
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37       Then, docheckgroups checks the active and newsgroups files and displays
38       on its standard output a list of changes, if any.  It does not change
39       anything by default; it only points out what should be changed:
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41       · Newsgroups which should be removed (they are in the active file but
42         not in the checkgroups) and the relevant ctlinnd commands to achieve
43         that;
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45       · Newsgroups which should be added (they are not in the active file but
46         in the checkgroups) and the relevant ctlinnd commands to achieve
47         that;
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49       · Newsgroups which are incorrectly marked as moderated or unmoderated
50         (they are both in the active file and the checkgroups but their
51         status differs) and the relevant ctlinnd commands to fix that;
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53       · Descriptions which should be removed (they are in the newsgroups file
54         but not in the checkgroups);
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56       · Descriptions which should be added (they are not in the newsgroups
57         file but in the checkgroups).
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59       The output of docheckgroups can be fed into mod-active (it will pause
60       the news server, update the active file accordingly, reload it and
61       resume the work of the news server) or into the shell (commands for
62       ctlinnd will be processed one by one).  In order to update the
63       newsgroups file, the -u flag must be given to docheckgroups.
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65       When processing a checkgroups manually, it is always advisable to first
66       check the raw output of docheckgroups.  Then, if everything looks fine,
67       use mod-active and the -u flag.
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OPTIONS

70       -u  If this flag is given, docheckgroups will update the newsgroups
71           file: it removes obsolete descriptions and adds new ones.  It also
72           sorts this file alphabetically and improves its general format (see
73           newsgroups(5) for an explanation of the preferred number of
74           tabulations).
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EXAMPLES

77       So as to better understand how docheckgroups works, here are examples
78       with the following active file:
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80           a.first 0000000000 0000000001 y
81           a.second.announce 0000000000 0000000001 y
82           a.second.group 0000000000 0000000001 y
83           b.additional 0000000000 0000000001 y
84           b.third 0000000000 0000000001 y
85           c.fourth 0000000000 0000000001 y
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87       the following newsgroups file (using tabulations):
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89           a.first             First group.
90           a.second.announce   Announce group.
91           a.second.group      Second group.
92           b.third             Third group.
93           c.fourth            Fourth group.
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95       and the following localgroups file (using tabulations):
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97           b.additional        A local newsgroup I want to keep.
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99       The checkgroups we process is in the file test which contains:
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101           a.first             First group.
102           a.second.announce   Announce group. (Moderated)
103           a.second.group      Second group.
104           b.third             Third group.
105           c.fourth            Fourth group.
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107       If we run:
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109           cat test | docheckgroups
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111       docheckgroups will output that a.second.announce is incorrectly marked
112       as unmoderated and that its description is obsolete.  Besides, two new
113       descriptions will be mentioned for addition (the new one for
114       a.second.announce and the missing description for b.additional -- it
115       should indeed be in the newsgroups file and not only in localgroups).
116       Now that we have checked the output of docheckgroups and that we agree
117       with the changes, we run it with the -u flag to update the newsgroups
118       file and we redirect the standard output to mod-active to update the
119       active file:
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121           cat test | docheckgroups -u | mod-active
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123       That's all!
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125       Now, suppose we run:
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127           cat test | docheckgroups "^c\..*$"
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129       Nothing is output (indeed, everything is fine for the c.* hierarchy).
130       It would have been similar if the test file had only contained the
131       checkgroups for the c.* hierarchy (docheckgroups would not have checked
132       a.* and b.*, even if they had been in include-pattern).
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134       In order to check both a.* and c.*, you can run:
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136           cat test | docheckgroups "^a\..*$|^c\..*$"
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138       And if you want to check a.* but not a.second.*, you can run:
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140           cat test | docheckgroups "^a\..*$" "^a\.second\..*$"
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142       In our example, docheckgroups will then mention a.second.announce and
143       a.second.group for removal since they are in the active file (the same
144       goes for their descriptions).  Notwithstanding, if you do want to keep
145       a.second.announce, just add this group to localgroups and docheckgroups
146       will no longer mention it for removal.
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FILES

149       pathbin/docheckgroups
150           The Shell script itself used to process checkgroups.
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152       pathetc/localgroups
153           The list of local newsgroups along with their descriptions.
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HISTORY

156       Documentation written by Julien Elie for InterNetNews.
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158       $Id: docheckgroups.pod 8357 2009-02-27 17:56:00Z iulius $
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SEE ALSO

161       active(5), controlchan(8), ctlinnd(8), mod-active(8), newsgroups(5).
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165INN 2.5.2                         2010-08-11                  DOCHECKGROUPS(8)
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