1CTLINND(8) InterNetNews Documentation CTLINND(8)
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6 ctlinnd - Control the main InterNetNews daemon
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9 ctlinnd [-hs] [-t timeout] [command [argument ...]]
10
12 ctlinnd sends a message to the control channel of innd(8), the main
13 InterNetNews daemon.
14 In the normal mode of behavior, the message is sent to the server,
16 which then performs the requested action and sends back a reply with a
17 text message and an exit code for ctlinnd. If the server successfully
18 performed the command, ctlinnd will print the reply on standard output
19 and exit with a status of zero. If the server could not perform the
20 command, it will direct ctlinnd to exit with a status of one. By
21 default, ctlinnd will wait forever for a response from innd; this can
22 be changed with the -t flag.
23 The "shutdown", "xabort", and "xexec" commands do not generate a reply,
25 since they cause innd to exit. After these commands, ctlinnd will
26 always exit silently with a status of zero.
27
29 -h Prints a command summary. If a command is given along with the -h
30 flag, only the usage for that command will be given.
31 -s If the command was successful, don't print the output from innd.
33 -t timeout
35 Specifies how long to wait for the reply from the server, for
36 commands other than "shutdown", "xabort", and "xexec". timeout is
37 the number of seconds to wait. A value of zero says to wait
38 forever, and a value less than zero says not to wait at all but
39 just exit immediately with status zero. When waiting for a reply,
40 ctlinnd will check every two minutes to be sure the server is still
41 running, to make it less likely that ctlinnd will just hang.
42 The default is zero, indicating that ctlinnd should wait forever.
44
46 Here is the complete list of supported commands. Note that nearly all
47 commands have a fixed number of arguments. If a parameter may be an
48 empty string, it is still necessary to pass the empty string to ctlinnd
49 as an argument (specified in the shell as two adjacent quotes, like
50 '').
51 addhist message-id arrival expires posted token
53 Add an entry to the history database for message-id. The angle
54 brackets around the message-ID are optional. It should normally be
55 protected from the shell with single quotes.
56 arrival, expires, and posted should be the number of seconds since
58 epoch and indicate when the article arrived, when it expires (via
59 the Expires: header), and when it was posted (given in the Date:
60 header), respectively. expires should be 0 if the article doesn't
61 have an Expires: header. token is the storage API token for the
62 article, and may be empty.
63 This command can only be used while the server is running, and will
65 be rejected if the server is paused or throttled.
66 allow reason
68 Allow remote connections, reversing a prior "reject" command.
69 reason must be the same text given to the "reject" command, or the
70 empty string (which matches any reason).
71 begin site
73 Begin feeding site. The server will rescan the newsfeeds file to
74 find the specified site and set up a newsfeed for it. If the site
75 already existed, a "drop" for that site is done first. This
76 command is forwarded; see NOTES below.
77 cancel message-id
79 Remove the article with the specified message-ID from the local
80 system. This does not generate a cancel control message; it only
81 affects the local system. The angle brackets around the message-ID
82 are optional. It should normally be protected from the shell with
83 single quotes (and not double quotes). For instance:
84 ctlinnd cancel 'test@foo.bar'
86 Note that the history database is updated with the specified
88 message-ID so if an article with the same message-ID is afterwards
89 received, it will be rejected; it is useful for rejecting spam
90 before it arrives.
91 If the server is throttled manually, this command causes it to
93 briefly open the history database. If the server is paused or
94 throttled for any other reason, this command is rejected.
95 changegroup group status
97 The newsgroup group is changed so that its status (the fourth field
98 in the active file) becomes status. This may be used to make an
99 existing group moderated or unmoderated, for example.
100 This command, unlike "newgroup" or "rmgroup", can only be used
102 while the server is running, and will be rejected if the server is
103 paused or throttled.
104 checkfile
106 Check the syntax of the newsfeeds file and display a message if any
107 errors are found. The details of the errors are reported to
108 syslog.
109 drop site
111 Flush and drop site from the server's list of active feeds. This
112 command is forwarded; see NOTES below.
113 feedinfo site
115 Print detailed information about the state of the feed to site, or
116 brief status about all feeds if site is the empty string.
117 flush site
119 Flush the buffer for the specified site. The action taken depends
120 on the type of feed the site receives; see newsfeeds(5) for more
121 information. This is useful when the site is being fed by a file
122 and batching is about to start, or to cleanly shut down and respawn
123 a channel feed. If site is an empty string, all sites are flushed
124 and the active file and history database are also flushed to disk.
125 This command is forwarded; see NOTES below.
126 Flushing the innfeed channel feed is the recommended method of
128 restarting innfeed to pick up new configuration. innd will spawn a
129 new innfeed process while the old process shuts down cleanly.
130 flushlogs
132 Close the news and error log files and rename them to add ".old" to
133 the file name, then open fresh news and error logs. The active
134 file and history database are also flushed to disk. Exploder and
135 process channels are reopened so that they properly take into
136 account the new log files.
137 go reason
139 Re-open the history database and start accepting articles again,
140 reversing a previous "pause" or "throttle" command. reason must be
141 either the empty string or match the text that was given to the
142 earlier "pause" or "throttle" command.
143 If a "reject" command is in effect, this will also reverse it by
145 doing the equivalent of an "allow" command if the reason matches
146 reason. Likewise, if a "reserve" command had been given, this will
147 clear the reservation if reason matches the text that was given to
148 "reserve".
149 The history database is automatically closed on "throttle" or
151 "pause" and reopened on "go", so the history database can be
152 replaced during the pause or throttle without requiring an explicit
153 "reload" command. If any other configuration files or the active
154 file were modified, a "reload" command should be given to force the
155 server to re-read those files.
156 If the server throttled itself because it accumulated too many I/O
158 errors, this command will reset the error count.
159 If innd was not started with the -n y flag, this command also does
161 the equivalent of a "readers" command with "yes" as the flag and
162 reason as the text.
163 hangup channel
165 Close the socket for the specified incoming channel. This may be
166 useful when an incoming connection appears to be hung (although
167 innd will close idle connections automatically after a timeout).
168 help [command]
170 Print a command summary for all commands, or just command if one is
171 specified. This is equivalent to the -h option.
172 kill signal site
174 Signal signal is sent to the process underlying the specified site,
175 which must be a channel or exploder feed. signal may be a numeric
176 signal number or one of "hup", "int", or "term"; case is not
177 significant.
178 logmode
180 Cause the server to log its current operating mode to syslog.
181 lowmark file
183 Reset the low water marks in the active file based on the contents
184 of file. Each line in file must be of the form:
185 group low-value
187 For example:
189 comp.lang.c++ 243
191 This command is mostly used by news.daily to update the active file
193 after nightly expiration.
194 mode
196 Print the server's operating mode as a multi-line summary of the
197 parameters and the operating state. The parameters in the output
198 correspond to command-line flags to innd and give the current
199 settings of those parameters that can be overridden by command-line
200 flags.
201 name channel
203 Print the name and relevant information for the given incoming or
204 outgoing channel, or for all channels if channel is an empty
205 string. The response is formatted as:
206 <name>:<number>:<type>:<idle>:<status>
208 where <name> is the name of the channel, <number> is its number
210 (generally the same as the file descriptor assigned to it), <idle>
211 is the idle time for an NNTP channel or the process ID for a
212 process channel, and <status> is the status for NNTP channels.
213 The type is one of the following values:
215 control Control channel for ctlinnd
217 file An outgoing file feed
218 localconn Local channel used by nnrpd and rnews for posting
219 nntp NNTP channel for remote connections
220 proc The process for a process feed
221 remconn The channel that accepts new remote connections
222 Channel status indicates whether the channel is paused or not.
224 Nothing is shown unless the channel is paused, in which case
225 "paused" is shown. A channel will be paused automatically if the
226 number of remote connections for that label in incoming.conf is
227 greater than max-connections within hold-time seconds.
228 newgroup group [status [creator]]
230 Create the specified newsgroup. The status parameter is the fourth
231 field of the active file entry, as described in active(5). If it
232 is not an equal sign, only the first character is used. creator
233 should be the identity of the person creating the group. If the
234 newsgroup already exists, this is equivalent to the "changegroup"
235 command.
236 creator, encoded in UTF-8 if given, may be omitted; if so, it will
238 default to the newsmaster (as specified at configure time, normally
239 "usenet"). status may also be omitted; if so, it will default to
240 "y" (a normal, unmoderated group). The combination of defaults
241 make it possible to use the text of the Control: header directly
242 (although don't do this without checking the syntactic validity of
243 the header first).
244 This command can only be done while the server is running or
246 throttled manually. It will update its internal state when a "go"
247 command is sent. This command updates the active.times file as
248 well. This command is forwarded; see NOTES below.
249 param letter value
251 Change the specified server parameter. letter is the innd command-
252 line option to set and value is the new value. For example:
253 ctlinnd param i 5
255 would direct the server to allow only five incoming connections.
257 To enable or disable the action of the -n flag, use "n" for the
258 letter and "y" or "n", respectively, for the value.
259 The supported values for letter are "a", "c", "H", "i", "l", "n",
261 "o", "T", "t", and "X".
262 pause reason
264 Pause the server so that no incoming articles are accepted. No
265 existing connections are closed, but the history database is
266 closed. This should be used for short-term locks, such as when
267 replacing the history database. If the server was not started with
268 the -n y flag, this command also does the equivalent of a "readers"
269 command with "no" as the flag and reason as the text, encoded in
270 UTF-8.
271 perl flag
273 Enable or disable Perl filtering. This command is only available
274 if INN was built with Perl filtering support. If flag starts with
275 "y", filtering is enabled; if it starts with "n", filtering is
276 disabled.
277 When filtering is disabled, if the filter_innd.pl Perl filter
279 defined a function "filter_end", it will be called prior to the
280 deactivation of the filter.
281 python flag
283 Enable or disable Python filtering. This command is only available
284 if INN was built with Python filtering support. If flag starts
285 with "y", filtering is enabled; if it starts with "n", filtering is
286 disabled.
287 readers flag text
289 Allow or disallow readers. If flag starts with the letter "n",
290 then reading is disallowed by causing the server to pass text as
291 the value of the -r flag to nnrpd. If flag starts with the letter
292 "y" and text is either an empty string or the same string, encoded
293 in UTF-8, that was used when reading was disabled, reading will be
294 re-enabled.
295 This command has no effect if nnrpd is being run separately rather
297 than spawned by innd.
298 reject reason
300 Remote connections (those that would not be handed off to nnrpd)
301 are rejected with reason given as the explanation, encoded in
302 UTF-8. Existing connections are not closed.
303 reload what reason
305 Update the in-memory copy of server configuration files. what
306 identifies what should be reloaded, and reason is reported to
307 syslog in the message noting the reload.
308 There is no way to reload inn.conf, storage.conf, or other
310 configuration files for the storage or overview backends. To pick
311 up changes to those files, use "ctlinnd xexec innd" to restart
312 innd.
313 If what is the empty string or the word "all", everything is
315 reloaded. If it is the word "history", the history database is
316 closed and re-opened. If it is the word "incoming.conf", the
317 corresponding file is reloaded. If it is the word "active" or
318 "newsfeeds", both the active and newsfeeds files are reloaded,
319 which will also cause all outgoing feeds to be flushed and
320 restarted.
321 If what is the word "filter.perl", the filter_innd.pl file is
323 reloaded. If the Perl filter defined a function
324 "filter_before_reload", it will be called prior to re-reading
325 filter_innd.pl. If the Perl function "filter_after_reload" is
326 defined, it will be called after filter_innd.pl has been reloaded.
327 Reloading the Perl filter does not enable filtering if it has been
328 disabled; use "perl y" to do this instead. startup_innd.pl cannot
329 be reloaded. This file is not available for reloading unless INN
330 was compiled with Perl filtering support.
331 If what is the word "filter.python", the filter_innd.py file is
333 reloaded. If a Python method named "filter_before_reload" exists,
334 it will be called prior to re-reading filter_innd.py. If a Python
335 method named "__init__" exists, it will be called after
336 filter_innd.py has been reloaded. Reloading the Python filter does
337 not enable filtering if it has been disabled; use "python y" to do
338 this. This file is not available for reloading unless INN was
339 compiled with Python filtering support.
340 renumber group
342 Update the low water and high water marks for group in the active
343 file based on the information in the overview database. Regardless
344 of the contents of the overview database, the high water mark will
345 not be decreased. (Decreasing it may cause duplicate article
346 numbers to be assigned after a crash, which can cause serious
347 problems with the tradspool storage method.) If group is the empty
348 string, all newsgroups are renumbered. Renumber only works if
349 overview data has been created (if enableoverview is set to true in
350 inn.conf).
351 renumberlow file
353 Identical to the "lowmark" command.
354 reserve reason
356 Require the next "pause" or "throttle" command to use reason as its
357 reason, encoded in UTF-8. This reservation is cleared by giving an
358 empty string for the reason. This is used by programs like expire
359 to coordinate pauses and throttles of the server and avoid
360 trampling on other instances of themselves.
361 rmgroup group
363 Remove the specified newsgroup. The group is removed from the
364 active file and its overview information is purged, making it
365 immediately unavailable to readers. Unlike the "newgroup" command,
366 this command does not update the active.times file.
367 This command can only be done while the server is running or
369 throttled manually. This command is forwarded; see NOTES below.
370 send feed text
372 The specified text is sent as a control line to the exploder feed.
373 shutdown reason
375 The server is shut down, with the specified reason recorded in the
376 log and sent to all open connections. It is a good idea to send a
377 "throttle" command first so that feeds can be shut down more
378 gracefully.
379 If Perl or Python filtering is compiled in and enabled, certain
381 functions are called at "throttle" or "shutdown" (to save filter
382 state to disk, for example). Consult the embedded filter
383 documentation for details.
384 stathist (off | filename)
386 Enable or disable generation of history performance statistics. If
387 the parameter is "off", no statistics are gathered. Otherwise,
388 statistics are written to the specified file. A parser for this
389 file is provided in the contrib tree of the INN distribution.
390 status (off | interval)
392 Adjust the frequency with which innd reports status information to
393 syslog. Status reporting is turned off if "off" or 0 is given as
394 the argument. Otherwise, status will be reported every interval
395 seconds. See status in inn.conf(5) for information on how to set
396 the default.
397 throttle reason
399 Close all existing incoming connections and outgoing feeds and
400 reject new connections. Close the history database. This should
401 be used for long-term locks or for running a large number of
402 "newgroup" and "rmgroup" commands without restarting all outgoing
403 feeds between each one. (Note that changing the status of existing
404 newsgroups when the server is throttled cannot be done.)
405 If the server was not started with the -n y flag, then this command
407 also does the equivalent of a "readers" command with "no" as the
408 flag and reason as the text, encoded in UTF-8.
409 timer (off | interval)
411 Adjust the frequency with which innd reports performance
412 information to syslog. Performance monitoring is turned off if
413 "off" or 0 is given as the argument. Otherwise, statistics will be
414 reported every interval seconds to syslog. See timer in
415 inn.conf(5) for information on how to set the default.
416 trace item flag
418 Turn tracing on or off for the specified item. flag should start
419 with the letter "y" or "n" to turn tracing on or off, respectively.
420 If item starts with a number, tracing is set up for the specified
421 innd channel, which must be an incoming NNTP feed. If it starts
422 with the letter "i", general innd tracing is turned on or off. If
423 it starts with the letter "n", future nnrpd processes spawned by
424 "innd" will or will not be passed the -t flag, as appropriate.
425 This will not affect any nnrpd processes already running, or nnrpd
426 processes started by some means other than innd.
427 xabort reason
429 Log the specified reason and then abort. On most systems, this
430 will cause innd to dump a core file. This is only useful for
431 debugging.
432 xexec path
434 Shut down the server, but then rather than exiting, exec innd with
435 all of its original arguments except for -r. path may be either
436 "innd" or an empty string, both of which are equivalent. Any other
437 value is an error.
438 This is the easiest way to start a new copy of innd after upgrading
440 or reload configuration files that can't be reloaded via the
441 "reload" command.
442
444 In addition to being acted on by the server, certain commands can be
445 forwarded to an appropriate child process. If the site receiving the
446 command is an exploder (such as buffchan) or a funnel that feeds into
447 an exploder, the command can be forwarded. In this case, the server
448 will send a command line to the exploder that consists of the ctlinnd
449 command name. If the site funnels into an exploder that has an
450 asterisk ("*") in its "W" flag (see newsfeeds(5) for more information
451 on feed specifications), the site name will be appended to the command;
452 otherwise, no argument is appended.
453
455 ctlinnd uses Unix domain sockets on most systems to communicate with
456 innd and is therefore limited by whatever maximum packet size the
457 operating system imposes on Unix domain datagrams. This may mean that
458 server replies are limited to 4 KB on some systems.
459
461 Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. Rewritten
462 in POD by Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>.
463 $Id: ctlinnd.pod 9767 2014-12-07 21:13:43Z iulius $
465
467 active(5), active.times(5), buffchan(8), incoming.conf(5), innd(8),
468 inndcomm(3), inn.conf(5), newsfeeds(5), nnrpd(8).
469INN 2.6.4 2015-09-12 CTLINND(8)