1NEWSX(8) System Manager's Manual NEWSX(8)
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6 newsx - news server exchange; post and fetch news articles
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10 newsx [ options ] [ spoolname [ [ hostname ] port ] ]
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12
14 newsx is a client connecting to an NNTP server, posting outgoing arti‐
15 cles batched by the news system, while also fetching new incoming arti‐
16 cles from the same newsserver.
17
18 It provides the NNTP capabilities required for serving a small local
19 news spool such as those that may be found on installations with NNTP
20 access through limited ISP accounts only, as well as being suitable for
21 exchanging news with supplemental news sources for full scale news
22 servers.
23
24
26 The program would normally be run by user news.
27
28 When started, newsx will go through the spoolname outgoing spool queue,
29 and attempt to post all articles therein to the NNTP server hostname.
30
31 If a username and password for use with the simple authorization proto‐
32 col have been supplied, they will be sent to the server first. If the
33 -r option is specified, a MODE READER command will be sent.
34
35 When the outgoing transfer is finished, articles will be removed from
36 the outgoing spool queue if successful transfer has been acknowledged
37 by the NNTP host, if the article was specified by the host as a dupli‐
38 cate (already posted), or if a spooled article can no longer be found.
39
40 The fetch phase is then initiated. Articles available from the
41 newsserver will be fetched and placed in the incoming spool, ready to
42 be injected into the news system by newsrun (C News) or rnews -U (INN).
43
44 The groups are visited in the sequence that they appear in the host
45 incoming state file, see in.hosts(5). This may be used actively to
46 prioritize between newsgroups. A tag mechanism controlled by the -e
47 option is available to limit the number of groups that will be fetched.
48
49 Group names not present in the active file will not be fetched. Every
50 group name is checked against the spoolname entries in the sys (C News)
51 or newsfeeds (INN) file, as well as any --groups option, and only
52 groups allowed there will actually be fetched. For C News, the group
53 name is also checked against the ME entry, whereas in INN the ME entry
54 is just prepended to the spoolname entry.
55
56 In this way, the sys/newsfeed file is used to control which newsgroups
57 are actually received from the remote site, in the same manner that the
58 local server determines which outgoing article will go where.
59
60 If an -e option hasn't been specified, the local active file is then
61 traversed to see if there are groups not mentioned in the current host
62 newsrc file. Again, only groups allowed by sys or newsfeeds is actu‐
63 ally fetched. Since these groups don't have a starting point specified,
64 all available articles will be fetched.
65
66 To avoid transferring cross-posted articles more than once, articles
67 with messags IDs already fetched in the same session will not be
68 fetched again.
69
70 To make multiple news sources to be used in an efficient manner, arti‐
71 cles present in the history database will be skipped.
72
73 The pull phase can be omitted entirely by using the -g option.
74
75 Statistics on the connection will be logged to syslog (or stderr with
76 -d). The posted article count is the total number of articles actually
77 posted. The duplicate count is how many message IDs from posted mes‐
78 sages that were found to already exist on the remote system. The miss‐
79 ing count is those posted articles that could no longer be found
80 locally, usually because they were canceled locally, or perhaps since
81 they were expired already.
82
83 The connection time and the total number of characters transferred via
84 the NNTP layer is logged, in addition to the average speed of article
85 transfer. The speed given is the net rate, the calculation being based
86 on the actual number of characters belonging to news article head and
87 body parts.
88
89 A log file may be specified with the -l option, and a folder of posted
90 messages maintained with the -f option.
91
92
94 options
95 As detailed below.
96
97 spoolname
98 The name of the outgoing spool queue. If not specified, the
99 value of the NNTPSERVER environment variable will be used.
100
101 hostname
102 The hostname of the remote NNTP server to connect to. If not
103 specified, the name of the spool will be used.
104
105 port The port used for connecting to hostname. Will usually not need
106 to be specified, and port "nntp" will be assumed. The port name
107 "telnet" will receive special treatment.
108
109
111 -f folder, --posted folder
112 Posted articles will be appended to the standard mail folder
113 indicated. Note that the article will be added to the folder
114 the first time posting of an article is attempted. The actual
115 status of the posting will appear in the log file.
116
117 -l logfile, --log logfile
118 Log information about successfully posted articles to the file
119 indicated.
120
121 --stat statfile
122 A summary of article exchange statistics will be logged to the
123 file indicated.
124
125 --scanlogs
126 Obey locks set by the INN scanlogs utility. This is currently
127 only meaningfull for use with a modified scanlogs that under‐
128 stands newsx logs.
129
130
132 -a authfile, --auth authfile
133 If specified, the username and password combination found in
134 authfile will be sent to the server as part of the simple autho‐
135 rization protocol when the connection is first made. The file
136 should consist of a line with two blank-separated words, the
137 first being the username, the second the password. Do ensure
138 that this file only has read access only for those users that
139 need to know.
140
141 --authgeneric
142 Authentication with the server is performed using AUTHINFO
143 GENERIC. This works by spawning a child process via /bin/sh
144 string, where string is set in the environment variable NNT‐
145 PAUTH. This process is expected to handle the authentication
146 portion of the connection.
147
148 -r, --reader
149 A MODE READER command is sent to the remote server. This is used
150 when connecting to remote INN hosts that needs it, and is the
151 default state when using --ihave. With ihave, the command is
152 issued between the ihave and fetch phase, otherwise the command
153 is issued initially.
154
155 --no-reader
156 No MODE READER command is sent to the remote server. This is the
157 default state when not using --ihave.
158
159 --readbeforeauth
160 Send the MODE READER command before attempting to authenticate
161 via an AUTHINFO command. Otherwise, it is sent after the authen‐
162 tication. This option will obviously have no effect unless you
163 also specify both --reader and one of --authgeneric or --auth
164 authfile.
165
166 -w chatfile, --chat chatfile
167 Use chatfile to control any special connect sequence that may be
168 required before the NNTP protocol is connected. Only implemented
169 for the "telnet" protocol.
170
171 -x command, --exec command
172 If specified, the command will be executed after the host port
173 has been opened. This option is used in rare cases when special
174 tricks has to be employed to get an NNTP connection activated.
175
176 -y program, --connect program
177 If specified, connect via a bidirectional pipe to program
178 instead of to a socket. The hostname and port arguments will be
179 ignored.
180
181
183 -p, --no-post
184 Do not attempt to do any posting.
185
186 --ihave
187 Use NNTP IHAVE mechanism for submitting news messages, instead
188 of the default POST. If this is for forwarding news in general,
189 and not necessarily news generated locally, the setting of the
190 --fail and --bounce option should be carefully reviewed.
191
192 -m, --no-msgid
193 Remove any message-ID header field from the posted message. This
194 should cause the receiving end to generate a fresh message-ID.
195 It should never been used together with --ihave.
196
197 -k, ----keep-path
198 Keep the Path when posting. In posting mode, the Path is by
199 default stripped together with the NNTP-Posting-Host and Xref
200 header items, so that the path of the news article as posted
201 will appear to start at the actual posting host. With --ihave,
202 the path is always included.
203
204 --continue
205 Ignore (but report) errors about non-existing outgoing spools,
206 and continue with news fetching instead.
207
208 --max-path len
209
210 All outgoing articles are checked to see if the length of
211 their paths are not too long. This is an extra precaution
212 against inadvertently submitting foreign articles for posting.
213 This option sets the maximum path length allowed. The default
214 value is 1, consistent with a simple, local, newsspool. To dis‐
215 able this feature, set it to an impossibly large value, like
216 999.
217
218
220 -g, --no-fetch
221 Do not attempt to fetch any news articles.
222
223 -e end_tag, --end end_tag
224 Specify a tag in the incoming host state file, see in.hosts(5).
225 News fetching will end when a corresponding tag line has been
226 reached. The tag line consists of a colon followed by the tag
227 itself. This is a useful tool for dividing the newsgroups into
228 several categories. Only a few newsgroups may be fetched during
229 prime time, whereas the full list can be fetched once every
230 night, for instance.
231
232 -W winsize, --window winsize
233 Specify the window size with respect to how many outstanding
234 NNTP requests will be allowed at any one time. The default set‐
235 ting is 10. A value of 0 will disable windowing (aka. stream‐
236 ing) completely, making debugging easier. Increasing the window
237 can significantly improve the article transfer speed. The
238 effect is particulary pronounced over slow links and when many
239 of the articles are already present in the local spool, where an
240 improvement in speed of over 10 times has been observed compared
241 to running with windowing disabled. All this at the penalty of
242 an increased host newsserver load, obviously.
243
244 -b minspool, --size minspool
245 Specify the minimum incoming spool size. After every new group,
246 if the spool file has reached the byte size specified, a new
247 spool batch will be made. Setting this value to 1 will cause
248 every newsgroup to be placed in a separate spool.
249
250 --rnews
251 Pipe incoming messages directly to rnews instead of placing them
252 into the in-coming spool.
253
254 --pipe-to program
255 Pipe incoming messages to program instead of placing them into
256 the in-coming spool. A separate program and pipe is initiated
257 for each incoming message.
258
259 --rnews-to program
260 Like --pipe-to, but the pipe is continuous for each session,
261 with article seperation is in rnews style.
262
263 -z, --sync
264 Omit actual pulling of news articles. Instead, simply update the
265 host incoming state file to synchronize with the currently high‐
266 est available article numbers from the server in question. This
267 option can be useful when a fresh local spool is initiated. No
268 article posting will be attempted. See also in.hosts(5).
269
270 -Z, --syncnew
271 Omit actual pulling of news articles in previously unseen groups
272 only. The net effect is that newly added groups will start
273 fetching from now on, instead of from the first article avail‐
274 able at the host server.
275
276 --reset
277 Ignore the latest article information in the host incoming state
278 file and attempt fetching all articles available from the
279 server, subject to the normal history lookup constraints. This
280 option is useful if the remote spool has been reconfigured. See
281 also in.hosts(5).
282
283 --filter filterprog
284 Enable message filtering via the program filterprog. Uses the
285 highwind interface model, where each article is given to the
286 filter in NNTP-fashion, and the filter responds with a 335 to
287 accept, and a 435 to reject a message.
288
289 --mfilter filterprog
290 Enable filtering by message ID. The filterprog will be invoked
291 once for each unseen message, with the message ID as a command
292 line argument. A non-zero return status will prevent the mes‐
293 sage from being transferred. This function is obsolete, and
294 will probably be removed in later versions.
295
296 -X num, --maxnew num
297 Fetch at most num articles from each new and previously unseen
298 newsgroup.
299
300 --maxart num
301 Fetch at most num articles from each newsgroup. Note that this
302 might cause articles to be silently lost.
303
304 --no-path
305 Unless the exclusion pattern is set to newsx, all incoming arti‐
306 cles are checked to see if their path is consistent with the
307 exclusions given in /usr/lib/news/newsfeeds. This option omits
308 this check.
309
310 --forget-inactive
311 Remove information in the incoming hosts state file about news‐
312 groups that are removed from the /usr/lib/news/active file. See
313 also in.hosts(5).
314
315 --minfree N
316 Don't fetch news if there are less than N kbytes free space in
317 the news spool.
318
319 --group list
320 Specify pattern for groups to be fetched that will apply in
321 addition to the ones in /usr/lib/news/newsfeeds. The syntax is
322 basically the same as for INN newsfeeds(5). It is recommended
323 to put list in single quotes, since shells may otherwise treat
324 the ! character in strange ways. For a list that specifies only
325 negations, an initial '*' clause will be assumed.
326
327 This options is particularily useful to specify unsymmetric behaviour,
328 i.e.
329 groups where there will be outgoing traffic, but no incoming
330 articles. For instance, to explicitly avoid fetching of control
331 groups, use:
332 --groups '!control.*'
333
334 It can also be useful to specify that only a subset of groups should be
335 fetched for the occasion, e.g:
336 --groups 'comp.*,!*.advocacy'
337
338 It is recommended to put the argument for --groups in single quotes.
339
340
342 -c, --cnews
343 Set to C News mode as opposed to INN. Controls details regarding
344 handling of spool and lock files.
345
346 -i, --inn
347 Set to INN mode as opposed to C News. Controls details regarding
348 handling of spool and lock files.
349
350 --newline
351 Uses single newline character as line terminator instead of the
352 carriage return, line feed sequence.
353
354 -v, --version
355 Display program version. Include this when reporting bugs to
356 http://www.kvaleberg.com/bug/
357
358 --help Give a very brief usage summary.
359
360 --no-ps
361 Do not update the process status display.
362
363
365 Note: Unless otherwise specified, these options are in addition to the
366 usual actions and do not imply --no-post or --no-fetch. Specify those
367 switches if desired.
368
369 --list listname
370 Obtain a list of newsgroups from the newsserver to listname.
371 The list consists of one line per newsgroup, containing the
372 newsgroup name, a blank, and a letter showing the group status
373 (usually 'y' for an active group, 'm' for a moderated group).
374
375 If the first character is a '|',
376 listname is assumed to be a program path which will receive the
377 list as standard input (you will need to put the entire argument
378 in quotes to escape the usual shell interpretation of '|'). If
379 it is a single '-', the list will appear on the standard output.
380 Otherwise it will be assumed to be a filename.
381
382 --newlist listname
383 Obtain a list of newsgroups not currently present on the local
384 server from the newsserver to listname. The list is also sub‐
385 ject to the limitations of the sys or newsfeeds file. The oper‐
386 ation is otherwise as for the --list option.
387
388 --desc descname
389 Obtain a list of newsgroups descriptions from the newsserver to
390 descname. Only descriptions for locally active newsgroups rele‐
391 vant to the newsfeed in question will be fetched.
392
393 The list consists of one line per newsgroup, containing the newsgroup
394 name,
395 a tab, and a short textual description. A pipe may be specified
396 in descname kist as for the --list option.
397
398 --alldesc descname
399 Obtain a list of all newsgroups descriptions available from the
400 newsserver to descname. The operation is otherwise as for the
401 --desc option.
402
403
405 -t timeout, --timeout timeout
406 Specify timeout for TCP/IP and lockfile operations, in seconds.
407 The default value is 600.
408
409 --fail time
410 Specify the maximum age of an article. Whenever an attempt of
411 posting an article fails, and the specified time limit is
412 exceeded, the article will be declared as failed, and a bounce
413 message will be generated. The default unit is hours; the suf‐
414 fixes s for seconds, m for minutes, h for hours, d for days and
415 w for weeks would change this. They can also be combined, e.g.
416 "4h30m". In absence of this option, no fail by age will be per‐
417 formed. Setting the time to zero will bounce messages after the
418 first failed attempt.
419
420 --bounce addr
421 Specify the destination address for messages bounced due to the
422 fail time being exceeded. If addr is specified as none, no
423 bounce will be generated. The default value, poster, causes
424 messages to be returned to the sender. This setting should defi‐
425 nitely only be used in situations where newsx is utilized for
426 posting locally generated news.
427
428 --attach how
429 Specifies the way the original message is handled for bounced
430 messages:
431
432 mime Send the original as a Mime attachement. This is the default be‐
433 haviour.
434
435 yes Append the original to the mail message itself.
436
437 no Do not attach the original message.
438
439
441 The following options are not for ordinary use: They would only be used
442 for special configurations where newsx is used as a sort of gateway to
443 inject news messages from other sources.
444
445 --inews
446 Pipe incoming messages directly to inews, inject them into the
447 local spool via the same interface as is used for local new mes‐
448 sages.
449
450 --inews-options options
451 Specify command line options for --inews. The leading '-' must
452 be included. The default inews options are "-hOS".
453
454 --add-header header
455 Add a specific header to incoming messages. The header will be
456 added exactly as specified, adding a trailing newline.
457
458 The exception is for the special 4 letter string "Path".
459 This will be replaced by a header line that says "Path: HOST‐
460 NAME!not-for-mail" if the incoming message contains no Path:.
461 This can be quite essential for news gateways to prevent
462 injected messages to be retured back to the source.
463
464
466 --profile file
467 Read a newsx profile from file . This file can contain command
468 line options to specify default newsx behaviour. See
469 newsx.conf(5) for an overview of the format.
470
471 Any option may be used in profile files. Some options are really only
472 meaningfull in profile files:
473
474 --spoolname spoolname
475 Specify a default spoolname.
476
477 --hostname hostname
478 Specify a default hostname.
479
480 --port port
481 Specify a default port for connecting to hostname.
482
483
485 Configuration to the local news system peculiarities is traditionally
486 done at build-time, but it is possible to specify at runtime in various
487 ways.
488
489 --config
490 Read and obey the standard news configuration file in
491 /usr/lib/news/lib/innshellvars. This allows newsx to adapt to
492 changes in the local newsserver configuration dynamically.
493
494 --config-is configfile
495 Like --config, except that the configuration filename is speci‐
496 fied. A list of files may also be specified, seperated by
497 colons. In this case, the first file on this list that exists
498 will be used.
499
500 --home newshome
501 Use newshome as the news home directory instead of the default
502 /usr/lib/news. A full path must be specified.
503
504 -s spooldir, --spool spooldir
505 Use spooldir as the news article spool directory instead of the
506 default /var/spool/news. A full path must be specified.
507
508 --togo togofile
509 Specify the name of the C News togo file for outgoing news. No
510 effect in INN mode. Required only if different from the default
511 value /var/spool/news/outgoing/spoolname/togo. A leading '/'
512 specifices a full path, a leading '.' is relative from the cur‐
513 rent directory, otherwise the name is relative to
514 /var/spool/news/outgoing/spoolname.
515
516 --batch batchdir
517 Use batchdir as the outgoing news article spool directory
518 instead of the default /usr/lib/newsbin. A leading '/' speci‐
519 fices a full path, a leading '.' is relative from the current
520 directory, otherwise the name is relative to /var/spool/news.
521
522 -h historydb, --history historydb
523 Specify the name of the history database file, used for checking
524 if news articles are already present in the spool. Required
525 only when using a name different from the default
526 /usr/lib/news/history. An empty argument "" will prevent any
527 referrence to the news history database.
528
529 --active activefile
530 Specify the name of the active newsgroup file for incoming news.
531 Required only if different from the default value
532 /usr/lib/news/active. A leading '/' specifices a full path, a
533 leading '.' specifies a path relative to the current directory,
534 otherwise the name is relative to /usr/lib/news.
535
536 --newsfeeds newsfeedsfile
537 Specify the name of the newsfeed specification file. This will
538 override the default both in C News (sys) and INN (newsfeeds)
539 modes. File name conventions as for --active.
540
541 --incoming incomingdir
542 Use incomingdir as the incoming news article spool directory
543 instead of the default /var/spool/news/incoming. Fine name con‐
544 ventions as for --active, except that the default directory is
545 /var/spool/news.
546
547 --inhosts inhostsdir
548 Use inhostsdir as the news host active file directory instead of
549 the default /var/spool/news/inhosts. Name conventions as for
550 --incoming. See also in.hosts(5).
551
552 --hostconfig hostconfigdir
553 Use hostconfigdir as the directory for the host specific pro‐
554 file. instead of the default /var/spool/news/in.hosts. Name
555 conventions as for --incoming. See also newin.hosts[4m(5) and
556 newsx.conf(5).
557
558
560 --debug level
561 Set debug level. Any level different from zero diverts reporting
562 to stderr instead of syslog, and turns on extra debugging out‐
563 put. Level 2 will output a '.' for every new article. Level 3
564 will log all NNTP commands. Level 4 will produce the same state
565 information that is available via the process status display.
566 Going to level 5 will produce additional debug information,
567 level 6 will include history database debug, while level 7 also
568 will show all communications over the NNTP socket, article con‐
569 tent included.
570
571 -d, --verbose
572 Enable debugging, and sets the debug level according to the num‐
573 ber of times it is specified.
574
575 -n, --dry-run
576 No-action flag, will "fake" an NNTP connection, and leave the
577 outgoing batch untouched. Probably useful only with --debug for
578 debugging and dry-testing.
579
580 --verify
581 Used together with --configor --config-is, causes the configura‐
582 tion to be verified, but not adapted to.
583
584 -o, --keepold
585 Keep the previous outgoing spool in an ".old" file. This might
586 seem like a useful option for ordinary use, but the problem is
587 that a non-empty file might cause a news watch program to
588 believe there is a stale outgoing spool.
589
590 -u, --no-force
591 After the timeout of lockfile operations, just give up and do
592 not attempt to unlock the lockfiles and remove the stale
593 process.
594
595 --no-queue
596 Do not queue up for access to a news host. If a lock already
597 exists for the specified host, just give up and don't queue up
598 for it.
599
600 --locks locksdir
601 Use locksdir as the lock file directory instead of the default
602 /usr/lib/news. Fine name conventions as for --active, except
603 that the default directory is /usr/lib/news. If the string none
604 is supplied, no locking will occur. All this should of course
605 be used only if you really, really know what you are doing.
606
607 -q "msgid", --enquire "msgid"
608 Enquires whether the msgid is present in the local history data‐
609 base. The msgid should include the angle brackets. Implies --no-
610 post and --no-fetch.
611
612 --no-hostlock
613 Do not implement the newsx host access lock. Should only be used
614 if you really know what you are doing.
615
616 --no-next
617 Do not use the NNTP NEXT command. This causes newsx not to
618 attempt to use NEXT for filling out gaps in the article
619 sequence.
620
621 --missing "num"
622 Tunes the number of missing articles in a row before a NEXT com‐
623 mand is issued, instead of a sequential STAT. A value of zero
624 will cause NEXT to be used extensively. The default value is 0
625 if no window, 2 if a window is specified.
626
627 --keep-fake
628 Some remote news servers generate faked news articles. Normally,
629 you would want newsx to skip them, but with this option you can
630 actually fetch them.
631
632
634 The -w option specifies that a special connect sequence is required,
635 and that a script for this sequence can be found in the chatfile. This
636 file consists of lines that contains pattern receive and send pairs,
637 separated by blanks. The patterns may be enclosed in quotes. The
638 script is currently only available for the "telnet" protocol.
639
640 A typical invocation line would be:
641 newsx -w chat.acme acme login.acme.net telnet
642
643 The file chat.acme could look like this:
644 # login for acme.net NNTP
645 login: myusername
646 Password: mypassword
647 $ "exec telnet news.acme.net nntp"
648 ECHO
649
650 The script will have to be adapted for local conditions, of course.
651
652 The special tag ECHO specifies that line echo should be suppressed,
653 required since the host telnet operates in line mode.
654
655 Since this file usually contains passwords and other sensitive informa‐
656 tion, ensure that read access to it is limited.
657
658
660 The ps process status will also show the current newsx status. During
661 the actual news transfer phase, it will show which group and article
662 number that is being fetched. A continuous status can be obtained by;
663 newsq -c
664
665 This feature can be disabled via the --no-ps option.
666
667
669 For INN, the following configuration items will be used:
670
671 $INND Signals an INN configuration.
672
673 $NEWSBIN
674 Directory for INN binaries.
675
676 $NEWSHOME
677 News home directory.
678
679 $PATHETC
680 Directory for news configuration files. Defaults to $NEWSHOME if
681 not available.
682
683 $SPOOL If $SPOOL contains the string "/articles", the incoming host
684 directory $INHOSTS will be formed by replacing it with
685 "/inhosts". Otherwise, "$SPOOL/in.hosts" will be used.
686
687 $BATCH Outgoing spool.
688
689 $INCOMING
690 Incoming spool.
691
692 $ACTIVE
693 Active file.
694
695 $HISTORY
696 History database.
697
698 $LOCKS DIrectory for lockfiles.
699
700 $NEWSFEEDS
701 Newsfeeds file.
702
703 $EXTENDEDDBZ
704 True is history database in extended format. Only relevant for
705 early INN 2.x where there is no libinn, otherwise ignored.
706
707 For C News:
708
709 $NEWSBIN
710
711 $NEWSCTL
712 Equivalent to INN $NEWSHOME. $ACTIVE will be "$NEWSCTL/active".
713 $HISTORY will be "$NEWSCTL/history". $NEWSFEEDS will be
714 "$NEWSCTL/sys". $LOCKS and $PATHETC will be "$NEWSCTL".
715
716 $NEWSARTS
717 Equivalent to INN $SPOOL. $BATCH will be "$NEWSARTS/out.going".
718 $INCOMING will be "$NEWSARTS/in.coming". $INHOSTS will be
719 "$NEWSARTS/in.hosts".
720
721
723 The -l log file of posted articles will contain one line for each arti‐
724 cle. To be compatible with the INN format, each field is separated by
725 a tabstop:
726
727 Month Standard 3 letter abbreviation.
728
729 Date 2 digits
730
731 HH:MM:SS
732 Local time.
733
734 Year 4 digits.
735
736 Spool Name of outgoing spool.
737
738 <Msgid>
739 Within angle brackets.
740
741 Filename
742 As it appears in the spool file.
743
744 Sender The value of the Sender-field, or From-field if no Sender is
745 available.
746
747 Status "OK" for successfully posted items, "Duplicate" for items
748 already posted.
749
750 Lines Number of lines in the posting.
751
752 Status Message status. "OK" if everything went well, otherwise an error
753 message appears.
754
755
757 The incoming spool consists of files with the file name ending by ".t".
758 Each file can contain many articles. Each article is prefixed by the
759 following header:
760 #! rnews N
761
762 The number N is the number of bytes of the article proper, not counting
763 the header line. The article follows after the header line. It appears
764 exactly as received from the news server except that CR/LF sequences
765 are replaced by proper newlines, and the terminating full stop is not
766 included.
767
768
770 Incoming message headers will pass through without modification, with
771 the exception that the text "newsx" will be added if not there already
772 when the exclusion pattern for the newshost is set to "newsx".
773
774 Most outgoing message header items will also pass through, altough some
775 header items are handled specially:
776
777 From: Will be used for indentifying the sender if everything else
778 fails.
779
780 Message-ID:
781 Will be used for logging purposes. The --no-msgid will remove
782 this item for messages being posted.
783
784 NNTP-Posting-Date:
785
786 NNTP-Posting-Host:
787 Will always be removed for messages being posted.
788
789 Path: Will be removed for messages being posted, unless the ----keep-
790 path option is given.
791
792 Reply-to:
793 Will be used for indentifying the sender.
794
795 Sender:
796 Will be used for indentifying the sender.
797
798 Xref: Will always be removed from outgoing messages.
799
800 X-Server-Date:
801
802 X-Trace:
803
804 X-Complaints-To:
805 Will always be removed for messages being posted.
806
807
809 newsx returns error codes as follows:
810 0 - Successful completion
811 1 - General system error
812 2 - Incorrect arguments supplied.
813 3 - Error connecting to remote host
814 4 - NNTP Protocol error
815 5 - Errors accessing outgoing spool file.
816 6 - Errors accessing host newsrc file.
817 7 - Errors accessing incoming spool file.
818 8 - Errors accessing local active and sys files.
819 9 - Socket access error (e.g. connection timeout)
820 10 - Errors accessing authinfo file.
821 11 - Connect script failure.
822 12 - Option -q did not find the message ID.
823 13 - Wait for lock timed out.
824
825
827 Distribution fields are ignored by newsx, and the handling of them left
828 to the news server.
829
830
832 Report any bugs to http://www.kvaleberg.com/bug/
833
834
836 See also in.hosts(5).
837
838 /usr/lib/news/newsx.conf
839 Newsx standard profile. If it exists, this profile file will be read
840 before the command line arguments are parsed. See newsx.conf(5).
841
842 /usr/lib/news/lib/innshellvars
843 The standard news configuration file.
844
845 For C News:
846
847 /var/spool/news/outgoing/spoolname/togo
848 Spool file
849
850 /var/spool/news/outgoing/spoolname/togo.old
851 Previous spool file
852
853 /var/spool/news/outgoing/spoolname/LOCKb
854 Lock file
855
856 /var/spool/news/incoming/.tmp.$$
857 Incoming spool, temporary file. $$ is the process ID.
858
859 /var/spool/news/incoming/T.$$.S.t
860 Incoming spool, when finished and ready for newsrun. T is the
861 current Unix time, $$ is the process ID, and, S is a sequence
862 number.
863
864 /usr/lib/news/active
865 Local active file, contains a list over all currently active
866 newsgroups in the local spool. This is used as a basis for con‐
867 structing a list over which newsgroups will actually be
868 requested.
869
870 /usr/lib/news/sys
871 Newsserver configuration file. This is used as a filter against
872 the local active list, deciding which newsgroups which will
873 actually be pulled. The basic format of each specification is:
874 site/exclusions:grouplist/distlist:flags:cmd
875
876 If the exclusions field is set to newsx, newsx will modify the
877 path of incoming news to include the "newsx" pattern.
878
879 The site field identifies the remote news source.
880
881 The grouplist is a comma separated list of group pattern names.
882 A !-prefix signifies exclusions, and the name all matches any‐
883 thing.
884
885 /usr/lib/news/history
886
887 /usr/lib/news/history.pag
888
889 /usr/lib/news/history.dir
890 Local news spool database.
891
892 For INN:
893
894 /var/spool/news/outgoing/spoolname
895 Spool file
896
897 /var/spool/news/outgoing/spoolname.old
898 Previous spool file
899
900 /usr/lib/news/LOCK.spoolname
901 Lock file
902
903 /usr/lib/news/active
904 Local active file, contains a list over all currently active
905 newsgroups in the local spool. This is used as a basis for con‐
906 structing a list over which newsgroups will actually be
907 requested.
908
909 /usr/lib/news/newsfeeds
910 Newsserver configuration file. This is used as a filter against
911 the local active list, deciding which newsgroups which will
912 actually be pulled. The basic format of each specification is:
913 site/exclusions:grouplist/distlist:flags:param
914
915 If the exclusions field is set to newsx, newsx will modify the
916 path of incoming news to include the "newsx" pattern.
917
918 The site field identifies the remote news source.
919
920 The grouplist is a comma separated list of group pattern names.
921 A !-prefix signifies groups not exchanged, and the name *
922 matches anything.
923
924 /usr/lib/news/history
925
926 /usr/lib/news/history.pag
927
928 /usr/lib/news/history.dir
929 Local news spool article database.
930
931
933 Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>
934
935
937 newsq(1), in.hosts(5)
938
939 C News: news(5), newsdb(5), newssys(5), rnews(8)
940
941 INN: rnews(1), inews(1), wildmat(3), active(5), history(5), news‐
942 feeds(5), ctlinnd(8)
943
944 RFC-977 - Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
945 RFC-1036 - Usenet Article Format
946
947 http://www.kvaleberg.com/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.html
948 http://www.kvaleberg.com/newsx.html
949
950
951
952
953 NEWSX(8)