1INND(8) InterNetNews Documentation INND(8)
2
6 innd - InterNetNews daemon
7
9 innd [-aCdfNrsSu] [-4 address] [-6 address] [-c days] [-H count] [-i
10 count] [-l size] [-m mode] [-n flag] [-o count] [-P port] [-t timeout]
11 [-T count] [-X seconds]
12
14 innd, the InterNetNews daemon, handles all incoming NNTP feeds,
15 coordinates the storage, retransmission, and overview generation for
16 all accepted articles, and manages the active(5) and history(5)
17 databases. It handles incoming connections on the NNTP port, and also
18 creates and listens to a local Unix-domain stream socket in order to
19 receive articles from local processes such as nnrpd(8) and rnews(1).
20 As the master daemon, innd should generally be started at boot and be
22 always running. It listens to a Unix-domain datagram socket for
23 commands to control its activities, commands that can be sent using
24 ctlinnd(8). The current status of innd can be obtained by running
25 "ctlinnd mode", or for more detailed output, innstat(8).
26 innd can be in one of three operating modes: running, paused, or
28 throttled. Running is the normal mode; when the server is throttled,
29 it closes connections and rejects new ones. Paused is like a temporary
30 throttle, suspending innd's activities but not causing the server to
31 shut down existing connections. The mode is normally changed via
32 ctlinnd(8), either by various automated processes (such as nightly
33 article expiration) or manually by the news administrator, but innd
34 will also throttle itself if it encounters ENOSPC errors in writing
35 data or an excessive number of I/O errors (among other problems).
36 innd normally takes care of spawning nnrpd(8) to handle connections
38 from news reading clients, but it can be run on a separate port from
39 nnrpd(8) so that feed connections and news reading connections are
40 handled separately (this can often be faster). Normally, innd listens
41 on port 119, the assigned port for NNTP; if it is desirable to run innd
42 and nnrpd(8) on separate ports, it's recommended that nnrpd(8) be given
43 port 119 (since many news reading clients connect only to that port)
44 and that port 433 be used for innd.
45 The primary configuration files that control innd's activities are
47 incoming.conf, which specifies what remote sites innd will accept
48 connections from, newsfeeds, which specifies what is to be done with
49 incoming articles besides storing them, and inn.conf, which sets a wide
50 variety of configuration parameters. Some parameters in inn.conf(5)
51 can also be set with command-line flags; for these, the command-line
52 flags take precedence if used.
53 innd must be run as the news user and news group. It will check for
55 this at startup and fail to start if not run properly. Normally it
56 should be started via rc.news(8) as part of the system boot up process.
57 It relies on the setuid root helper program innbind(8) to listen on a
58 privileged port (119, 433 or 563).
59
61 For the options below that override inn.conf settings, see inn.conf(5)
62 for the default values if neither the inn.conf setting nor the command-
63 line option is given.
64 -4 address
66 Normally, innd binds to all local IP addresses (unless bindaddress
67 is set in inn.conf). If this option is given, it specifies the IP
68 address that INN should bind as. This is only relevant for servers
69 with multiple local IP addresses. The IP address must be in
70 dotted-quad ("nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn") format.
71 If this option is specified, it's the same as setting bindaddress
73 in inn.conf and may cause changes in whether INN binds to an IPv6
74 address as well. See inn.conf(5) for more details and also the -6
75 flag for innd.
76 This option has no effect when systemd socket activation is used.
78 -6 address
80 Only applies when INN has been built with IPv6 support. Normally
81 innd binds to all local IP addresses (unless bindaddress6 is set in
82 inn.conf). If this option is given, it specifies the IPv6 address
83 that INN should bind to. The IPv6 address must be in colon-
84 separated RFC 4291 format ("n:n:n:n:n:n:n:n").
85 If this option is specified, it's the same as setting bindaddress6
87 in inn.conf and may cause changes in whether INN binds to an IPv4
88 address as well. See inn.conf(5) for more details and also the -4
89 flag for innd.
90 This option has no effect when systemd socket activation is used.
92 -a By default, if a host connects to innd but is not listed in
94 incoming.conf, the connection is handed off to nnrpd (or rejected
95 if noreader is set in inn.conf). If -a is given, incoming.conf is
96 ignored and any host can connect and transfer articles. This flag
97 should never be used with an accessible server connected to Usenet;
98 it would open the server up for all sorts of abuse.
99 -c days
101 innd normally rejects any article that is older (in days) than the
102 value of artcutoff in inn.conf. This option, if given, overrides
103 the value of that setting. If days is 0, this check is suppressed
104 and innd will accept articles regardless of how old they are.
105 Note that rejected articles are remembered during the number of
107 days specified by the "/remember/" line in expire.ctl(5). You'll
108 have to wait that number of days before being able to inject again
109 an article with the same previously rejected Message-ID.
110 -C This flag tells innd to accept and propagate but not actually
112 process cancel or supersedes messages. This is intended for sites
113 concerned about abuse of cancels, or that wish to use another
114 cancel mechanism with stronger authentication.
115 -d, -f
117 innd normally puts itself into the background, points its standard
118 output and error to log files, and disassociates itself from the
119 terminal. Using -d prevents all of this, resulting in log messages
120 being written to standard output; this is generally useful only for
121 debugging. Using -f prevents the backgrounding and disassociation
122 but still redirects output; it may be useful if you want to monitor
123 innd with a program that would be confused by forks.
124 -H count, -T count, -X seconds
126 These flags control the number of connections per seconds seconds
127 that are allowed. This code is meant to protect your server from
128 newsreader clients that make too many connections per minute (and
129 therefore these flags are probably only useful when innd is
130 spawning nnrpd). You probably should not use these options unless
131 you're having problems. The table used for this check is fixed at
132 128 entries and is used as a ring; the size was chosen to make
133 calculating the index easy and to be fairly sure that it won't run
134 out of space. In practice, it is unlikely that even half the table
135 will be used at any given moment.
136 The -H flag limits the number of times a host is allowed to connect
138 to the server per the time interval given by -X. The default is 2.
139 The -T flag limits the total number of incoming connections per the
141 time interval given by -X. The maximum value is 128, and the
142 default is 60.
143 Note that the time interval given by -X is set to 0 by default,
145 that is to say no control is done on the number of connections.
146 -i count
148 innd normally allows a maximum number of concurrent NNTP
149 connections given by the value of maxconnections in inn.conf. This
150 option, if given, overrides the value of that setting. If count is
151 0, this check is suppressed.
152 -l size
154 innd normally rejects any article larger than the value of
155 maxartsize in inn.conf. This option, if given, overrides the value
156 of that setting and specifies a maximum article size of size. If
157 size is 0, this check is suppressed.
158 -m mode
160 Normally, innd starts in the "running" mode. If this option is
161 given, it specifies what mode innd should start in. mode should
162 begin with one of "g", "p", or "t", and the starting mode will be
163 set to "running", "paused", or "throttled", respectively, based on
164 that initial letter. ("g" is short for "go".)
165 -N If this option is given, any filters (Perl or Python) are disabled
167 before innd starts (normally, filters default to being enabled).
168 The filters can be enabled after innd has started with ctlinnd(8).
169 -n flag
171 Whether innd allows (and hands off to nnrpd) reader connections
172 while paused or throttled is normally determined by the value of
173 readerswhenstopped in inn.conf. This option, if given, overrides
174 that value. If flag is "n", innd will not allow readers if it is
175 paused or throttled. If flag is "y", readers will be allowed
176 regardless of innd's operating mode.
177 -o count
179 This flag limits the number of file descriptors that are available
180 for outgoing file feeds. The default is the number of available
181 file descriptors minus some reserved for internal use (which could
182 potentially starve innd of descriptors to use for accepting new
183 connections). If innd has more file feeds than count, some of them
184 will be buffered and only written out periodically.
185 Normally you never need to use this option, since the number of
187 outgoing feeds is fixed, being the number of file feeds configured
188 in newsfeeds, and is generally small (particularly given that
189 innfeed(8) is now used for most outgoing feeds at large sites).
190 -P port
192 The port innd should listen on is normally given by the value of
193 port in inn.conf. This option, if given, overrides that value and
194 specifies the port that innd should bind to.
195 -r Instructs innd to renumber the active file after starting, just as
197 if a "ctlinnd renumber" command were sent.
198 -s Just check the syntax of the newsfeeds file and exit. innd will
200 exit with a non-zero status if any errors are found; the actual
201 errors will be reported via syslog(3).
202 -S Report errors found in incoming.conf via syslog(3) and exit
204 normally. (Yes, this is less useful than it should be.)
205 -t seconds
207 Normally, innd will flush any changes to history and the active
208 file after 300 seconds of inactivity. This option changes that
209 timeout to seconds.
210 -u The news log (the trace information for every article accepted by
212 innd) is normally buffered. This option changes the log to be
213 unbuffered.
214
216 Arriving articles that have a Control: header are called "control
217 messages". Except for cancel messages, these messages are handled by
218 controlchan(8) via a feed set up in newsfeeds.
219 (Cancel messages update the history database, so they must be handled
221 internally; the cost of syncing, locking, then unlocking would be too
222 high given the number of cancel messages that are received. Note that
223 if an article is cancelled before it is received by the news server, it
224 will be rejected when it arrives since the history database has been
225 updated; it is useful for rejecting spam before it arrives.)
226 The distribution of control messages is different than that of standard
228 articles. Control messages are normally filed into the pseudo-
229 newsgroup named "control" regardless of which newsgroup they were
230 actually posted to. If, however, a "control."command newsgroup exists
231 that matches the control command, the control message will be filed
232 into that group instead. For example, a newgroup control message will
233 be filed in "control.newgroup" if that group exists; otherwise, it will
234 be filed in "control".
235 If you want to specifically feed all control messages to a given site
237 regardless of whether the control messages would affect the newsgroups
238 you're feeding that site, you can put the appropriate control newsgroup
239 in the subscription list. For example, to feed all cancel messages to
240 a given remote site (normally a bad idea), add "control.cancel" to its
241 subscription list. Normally it's best to exclude the control
242 newsgroups from feeds to keep from sending your peers more control
243 messages than they care about. That's why the newsfeeds pattern
244 "!control,!control.*" is as often as not specified (adding this
245 pattern do not prevent control messages which affect the newsgroups fed
246 to a site from being sent to it).
247 checkgroups, newgroup and rmgroup control messages receive additional
249 special treatment. If one of these control messages is approved and
250 posted to the newsgroup being created or removed (or to the admin group
251 to which the checkgroups is posted), the message will be sent to all
252 sites whose subscription patterns would cause them to receive articles
253 posted to that group. For example, if a newgroup control message for a
254 nonexistent newsgroup "news.admin.meow" is received, it will be sent to
255 any site whose subscription pattern would cause it to receive
256 "news.admin.meow" if that newsgroup existed (such as a pattern of
257 "news.admin.*"). For this reason, it is correct to post newgroup
258 messages to the newsgroup that the control message would create. It is
259 not generally correct to crosspost newgroup messages to some "well-
260 propagated" newsgroup; not only will this not actually improve their
261 propagation to sites that want such control messages, but it will also
262 cause sites that do not want those control messages to receive them.
263 Therefore, assuming that a newgroup control message is sent to the
264 group "news.admin.meow" (specified in the Newsgroups: header) in order
265 to create the group "news.admin.meow", the sites with the following
266 subscription patterns will receive it:
267 *,@news.*
269 news.*
270 news.*,!control,!control.*
271 control,control.*
272 As a matter of fact, for the first pattern, "control.newgroup" (or
274 "control") is included in "*". However, the sites with the following
275 subscription patterns will not receive it:
276 *,@news.*,!control,!control.*
278 comp.*,@news.*
279 If a control message is posted to a group whose name ends with the four
281 characters ".ctl", this suffix is stripped off and the control message
282 is propagated as if it were posted to the base group. For example, a
283 cancel message posted to "news.admin.ctl" will be sent to all sites
284 that subscribe to "control.cancel" (or "control" if that newsgroup
285 doesn't exist) or "news.admin". This behavior is present for
286 historical compatibility reasons and should be considered obsolete;
287 support for the ".ctl" suffix may be removed in a future version of
288 INN.
289 Finally, articles posted to newsgroups beginning with "to." are treated
291 specially. Provided that either that newsgroup exists in the active
292 file or mergetogroups is set in inn.conf, the remainder of the
293 newsgroup is taken to be a site name, as configured in newsfeeds, and
294 the article is sent to that site. If mergetogroups is set, the article
295 will be filed in the group named "to" (which must exist in the active
296 file). For example, with mergetogroups set, an article posted to
297 "to.uunet" will be filed in "to" and sent to the site "uunet".
298
300 innd implements the NNTP commands defined in RFC 3977 (NNTP), RFC 4643
301 (NNTP authentication), RFC 4644 (streaming NNTP feeds) and RFC 6048
302 (NNTP LIST additions) with the following differences:
303 1. A batch transfer command, XBATCH byte-count, is provided. This
305 command will read byte-count bytes and store them for later
306 processing by rnews(1) (which must be run separately, probably from
307 cron). See innxbatch(8) and sendxbatches for more details on this
308 extension.
309 2. As INN is a mode-switching news server, innd implements a limited
311 subset of the protocol useful for transferring news. The remaining
312 commands are mostly only useful for readers and are implemented by
313 nnrpd(8). Use of the MODE READER command will cause innd to pass
314 the connection to nnrpd.
315 3. innd allows a wider syntax for wildmats.
317 4. Three commands (IHAVE, CHECK and TAKETHIS) will continue, for
319 interoperability reasons, to return a reject code (respectively
320 435, 438 and 439) when the command contains a syntax error (which
321 normally leads to 501).
322
324 innd modifies as few article headers as possible, although it could be
325 better in this area.
326 Empty headers and headers that consist of nothing but whitespace are
328 dropped.
329 The local site's name (as set with the pathhost parameter in inn.conf)
331 and an exclamation point are prepended to the Path: header, provided
332 the first site name in the Path: header is different from the local
333 one. In addition, pathalias and pathcluster may be similarly
334 respectively prepended and appended to the Path: header; see
335 inn.conf(5) for the details.
336 The Xref: header is removed and a new one created.
338 innd does not rewrite incorrect headers. For example, it will not
340 replace an incorrect Lines: header, though it may reject such an
341 article depending on the value of linecountfuzz in inn.conf.
342
344 In order to efficiently apply a large number of local cancels (such as
345 from processing NoCeMs or from some other external source), INN
346 supports a special feed mode available only to connections to the local
347 Unix-domain socket (not to connections to any network sockets).
348 To enter this mode, connect to the Unix-domain socket (pathrun/nntpin)
350 and send the command MODE CANCEL. The response will have code 284.
351 Every subsequent line sent on that connection should consist of a
352 single message-ID. An attempt will be made to cancel that message-ID,
353 and the server will reply 289 for success or 484 for failure. (Failure
354 can occur, for example, if the server is paused or throttled, or the
355 message-ID is corrupt. Failure does not occur if the article to be
356 cancelled does not exist.)
357
359 innd reports all incoming articles in its log file (pathlog/news).
360 This is a text file with a variable number of space-separated fields in
361 one of the following formats:
362 mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm + feed <message-id> site ...
364 mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm j feed <message-id> site ...
365 mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm c feed <message-id> Cancelling <message-id>
366 mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm - feed <message-id> reason
367 mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm ? feed <message-id> reason
368 There may also be hostname and/or size fields after the message-ID
370 depending on the settings of nntplinklog and logartsize in inn.conf.
371 The first three fields are the date and time to millisecond resolution.
373 The fifth field is the site that sent the article (based on the Path:
374 header) and the sixth field is the article's message-ID; they will be a
375 question mark if the information is not available.
376 The fourth field indicates whether the article was accepted or not. If
378 it is a plus sign, then the article was accepted. If it is the letter
379 "j", then the article was accepted, providing all of the newsgroups to
380 which the article was posted were set to status "j" in the active file
381 (or not listed in the active file and wanttrash was set in inn.conf),
382 and then the article was filed into the "junk" newsgroup. In both of
383 these cases, the article has been accepted and the "site ..." field
384 contains the space-separated list of sites to which the article is
385 being sent.
386 If the fourth field is the letter "c", then a cancel message was
388 accepted before the original article arrived, and a history entry for
389 the cancelled message was created so that innd will reject that message
390 if it arrives later.
391 If the fourth field is a minus sign, then the article was rejected.
393 The reasons for rejection generated by innd include:
394 "%s" header too long
396 Article exceeds local limit of %s bytes
397 Article posted in the future -- "%s"
398 Bad "%s" header
399 Can't write history
400 Duplicate
401 Duplicate "%s" header
402 EOF in headers
403 Linecount %s != %s +- %s
404 Missing %s header
405 No body
406 No colon-space in "%s" header
407 No matching newsgroups in cancel <%s>
408 No space
409 Space before colon in "%s" header
410 Too old -- "%s"
411 Unapproved for "%s"
412 Unwanted newsgroup "%s"
413 Unwanted distribution "%s"
414 Whitespace in "Newsgroups" header -- "%s"
415 where %s, above, is replaced by more specific information. (The Perl
417 and Python filters, if used, may reject articles with other reasons.)
418 If the fourth field is the letter "?", the article contains strange
420 strings, such as CR without LF or LF without CR. (These characters
421 should never occur in isolation, only together as CRLF to indicate the
422 end of a line.) This log message is just informational, to give an
423 idea of how widespread such articles are; innd does not reject such
424 articles.
425 Note that when wanttrash is set to true in inn.conf and an article is
427 received that isn't posted to any valid newsgroups, it will be accepted
428 and logged with two lines, a "j" line and a minus sign line, unless the
429 logtrash parameter is set to false (in which case only the "j" line is
430 written).
431 innd also makes extensive reports through syslog(3). The first word of
433 the log message will be the name of the site if the entry is site-
434 specific (such as a "connected" message). The first word will be
435 "SERVER" if the message relates to the server itself, such as when a
436 read error occurs.
437 If the second word is the four letters "cant", then an error is being
439 reported. (The absence of an apostrophe is intentional; it makes it
440 easier to grep from the command line and easier to find error messages
441 in FAQs using a search engine. However, "can't" is also used at a few
442 places.) In this case, the next two words generally name the system
443 call or library routine that failed and the object upon which the
444 action was being performed. The rest of the line may contain other
445 information.
446 In other cases, the second word attempts to summarize what change has
448 been made, while the rest of the line gives more specific information.
449 The word "internal" generally indicates an internal logic error.
450
452 innd will catch SIGTERM and SIGHUP and shut down. If -d is used,
453 SIGINT will also be caught and will result in an orderly shutdown.
454 innd will catch the SIGUSR1 signal and recreate the control channel
456 used by ctlinnd(8).
457
459 innd normally attempts to strip IP options from incoming connections,
460 since it uses IP-based authentication and source routing can confuse
461 that. However, this doesn't work on all systems, and it doesn't work
462 at all in the presence of IPv6 support (and is disabled in that case).
463 Hence, if using innd with IPv6 support, make sure that your kernel or
464 router disables source routing.
465
467 Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.
468
470 active(5), ctlinnd(8), history(5), incoming.conf(5), inn.conf(5),
471 innbind(8), innfeed(8), innstat(8), libinn_dbz(3), libinn_inndcomm(3),
472 newsfeeds(5), nnrpd(8), rnews(1), syslog(3).
473INN 2.6.5 2022-02-18 INND(8)