1PUBLIC-INBOX-OVERVIEW(7) public-inbox user manual PUBLIC-INBOX-OVERVIEW(7)
2
3
4
6 public-inbox-overview - an overview of public-inbox
7
9 public-inbox consists of many pieces which may be used independently or
10 in conjunction of each other for:
11
12 1. Mirroring existing public-inboxes.
13
14 2. Mirroring mailing lists.
15
16 3. Hosting standalone inboxes.
17
18 Mirroring existing public-inboxes
19 Mirroring existing public-inboxes is the easiest way to get started.
20 Your mirror will remain dependent on the REMOTE_URL you are mirroring
21 and you only need to use two new commands in addition to common git(1)
22 commands.
23
24 Instructions are different depending on whether the inbox is
25 public-inbox-v1-format(5) or public-inbox-v2-format(5). See the
26 "Archives are clonable:" part of the WWW interface of a given inbox for
27 cloning instructions specific to that inbox. The instructions are
28 roughly:
29
30 # for v1 inboxes:
31 git clone --mirror URL INBOX_DIR
32
33 # for v2 inboxes (each epoch needs to be cloned):
34 git clone --mirror URL/EPOCH INBOX_DIR/git/EPOCH.git
35
36 # The following should create the necessary entry in
37 # ~/.public-inbox/config, use "-V2" only for v2 inboxes:
38 public-inbox-init [-V2] NAME INBOX_DIR MY_URL LIST_ADDRESS
39
40 # Optional but strongly recommended for hosting HTTP
41 # (and required for NNTP)
42 # enable overview (requires DBD::SQLite) and, if Search::Xapian is
43 # available, search:
44 public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR
45
46 # Periodically fetch the repo using git-fetch(1)
47 # for v1 inboxes:
48 git --git-dir=INBOX_DIR fetch
49
50 # for v2 (in most cases, only the newest epoch needs to be fetched):
51 git --git-dir=INBOX_DIR/git/EPOCH.git fetch
52
53 # index new messages after fetching:
54 public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR
55
56 See "Serving public-inboxes" below for info on how to expose your
57 mirror to other readers.
58
59 Mirroring mailing lists
60 Mirroring mailing lists may be done by any reader of a mailing list
61 using public-inbox-watch(1).
62
63 # This will create a new v2 inbox:
64 public-inbox-init -V2 NAME INBOX_DIR MY_URL LIST_ADDRESS
65
66 Then, see the public-inbox-watch(1) manual for configuring "watch",
67 "watchheader", "listid" and the optional "spamcheck" and "watchspam"
68 entries.
69
70 You will need to leave public-inbox-watch(1) running to keep the
71 mailbox up-to-date as messages are delivered to the mailing list.
72
73 Running public-inbox-index(1) to create search indices is recommended.
74 public-inbox-watch(1) will automatically maintain the indices if they
75 were created by public-inbox-index(1)
76
77 public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR
78
79 Instead of using public-inbox-watch(1), using public-inbox-mda(1) with
80 the "--no-precheck" option and relying on the "listid" directive in
81 public-inbox-config(5) is also an option.
82
83 Hosting standalone inboxes
84 Using public-inbox-init(1) to initialize the inbox as in the other
85 methods is recommended. See public-inbox-mda(1) for more details; but
86 this also requires MTA-specific knowledge.
87
88 Serving public-inboxes
89 Since public-inboxes are git repositories, they may be served to remote
90 clients via git-daemon(1) as well as specialized HTTP and NNTP daemons
91 distributed with public-inbox.
92
93 See public-inbox-httpd(1) and public-inbox-nntpd(1) for more
94 information on using these daemons.
95
96 Hosting a public-inbox over HTTP or NNTP will never require write
97 access to any files in the inbox directory.
98
99 Users familiar with PSGI and Plack may also use PublicInbox::WWW with
100 the preferred server instead of public-inbox-httpd(1)
101
103 Feedback welcome via plain-text mail to <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>
104
105 The mail archives are hosted at <https://public-inbox.org/meta/> and
106 <http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/>
107
109 Copyright 2016-2021 all contributors <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>
110
111 License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>
112
113
114
115public-inbox.git 1993-10-02 PUBLIC-INBOX-OVERVIEW(7)