1NEWS.DAILY(8)             InterNetNews Documentation             NEWS.DAILY(8)
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NAME

6       news.daily - Perform daily Usenet maintenance tasks
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SYNOPSIS

9       news.daily [delayrm] [expctl=path] [expdir=path] [expireover]
10       [expireoverflags=args] [flags=args] [lowmark] [mailto=address]
11       [noexpire] [noexpireover] [noexplog] [nologs] [nomail] [noprocbatch]
12       [norenumber] [norm] [norotate] [nostat] [notdaily] [postexec=program]
13       [procbatchdir=path] [tmpdir=path] [/path/to/a/program]
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DESCRIPTION

16       news.daily performs a number of important Usenet administrative
17       functions.  This includes:
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19       • producing a status report with innstat;
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21       • removing old news articles (with expirerm if the delayrm keyword is
22         specified);
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24       • purging the overview database with expireover if the corresponding
25         eponym keyword is specified;
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27       • processing log files and rotating the archived log files with
28         scanlogs;
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30       • processing innfeed dropped files with procbatch;
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32       • renumbering the active file with ctlinnd;
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34       • rebuilding the history file with expire;
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36       • removing any old socket files found in the pathrun directory;
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38       • collecting all the output and mailing it.
39
40       Please note that this program should be run under the news
41       administrator's account (usually "news"), not as root.  By default,
42       news.daily performs all of its functions and mails the output to the
43       news administrator, which is the user specified with --with-news-master
44       at configure time (it is "usenet" by default).  You can also change
45       this behaviour with the mailto keyword.
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47       By specifying keywords on the command line, it is possible to modify
48       the functions performed, as well as change the arguments given to
49       expire(8) and expireover(8).  news.daily should be run once a day,
50       typically out of cron(8).  Since it will slow the server down while it
51       is running, it should be run during periods of low server usage, such
52       as in the middle of the night.  To run it at 3am, for example, add the
53       following entry to the news user's crontab file:
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55           0 3 * * * <pathbin in inn.conf>/news.daily expireover lowmark
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57       If you're using any non-CNFS storage methods, add the delayrm keyword
58       to the above option list for news.daily.
59
60       It may be run more often, but such invocations should at least use the
61       norotate keyword (or perhaps the notdaily keyword) to prevent the log
62       files from being processed and rotated too fast.  The shlock(1) program
63       is used to prevent simultaneous executions.
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65       The program specified by the given path /path/to/a/program is executed
66       just before any expiration is done.  A typical use is to specify an
67       alternate expiration program and use the noexpire keyword.  Multiple
68       programs may be specified; they will be invoked in order.
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KEYWORDS

71       The following keywords may be used:
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73       delayrm
74           This uses the -z flag when invoking expire and expireover.  The
75           names of articles to be removed are written to a temporary file,
76           and then renamed after expiration by calling expirerm which in turn
77           calls fastrm.
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79       expctl=path
80           Specify the file to use as the expire.ctl file for expire.
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82       expdir=path
83           By default, expire builds the new history file and database in the
84           same directory as the current files.  Using this keyword specifies
85           a different location to build the new files (by passing the -d flag
86           to expire), which will then be moved to the right location when
87           finished.
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89       expireover
90           The expireover program is called after expiration to purge the
91           overview database.  If no overview data is created, the expireover
92           keyword is not needed.  This is the case when the server runs only
93           for feeders (no reader).  By default, expireover is not called by
94           news.daily.
95
96       expireoverflags=args
97           If the expireover keyword is used, this keyword may be used to
98           specify the flags to be passed to expireover.  If the delayrm
99           keyword is used, then the default value is -z and the list of
100           deleted files; otherwise, the default value is -s.
101
102       flags=args
103           By default, expire is invoked with argument -v1.  Using this
104           keyword changes the arguments to those specified.  Be careful to
105           use quotes if multiple arguments are needed.  This keyword has no
106           effect if the noexpire keyword is used.
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108       lowmark
109           If the lowmark keyword is used, "ctlinnd lowmark" is used for
110           renumbering active.  Normal "ctlinnd renumber" operation will take
111           long time.  With the lowmark keyword, this will take less time.  If
112           the lowmark keyword is used, the norenumber keyword is not needed
113           since news.daily specifies it implicitly.
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115           If the lowmark keyword is given to news.daily, then the expireover
116           keyword must also be given; otherwise, that kind of renumbering
117           will not be taken into account.
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119       mailto=address
120           By default, news.daily mails the report to the newsmaster address
121           specified with --with-news-master at configure time.  The mailto
122           keyword can specify a different address to which to mail the
123           report.  Note that using this keyword has no effect if the nomail
124           keyword is also specified.
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126       noexpire
127           By default, expire is invoked to remove old news articles.  Using
128           this keyword disables this function.
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130       noexpireover
131           By default, expireover is invoked to remove old overview database
132           if enableoverview is set in inn.conf.  Using this keyword disables
133           this function.
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135       noexplog
136           expire normally appends information to pathlog/expire.log (see
137           newslog(5)).  Using this keyword causes the expire output to be
138           handled as part of news.daily's output.  It has no effect if the
139           noexpire keyword is used.
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141       nologs
142           After expiration, scanlogs is invoked to process the log files.
143           Using this keyword disables all log processing functions.
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145       nomail
146           news.daily normally sends a mail message containing the results to
147           the administrator.  Using this keyword causes this message to be
148           sent to stdout and stderr instead.  Normally, all utilities invoked
149           by the script have their stdout and stderr redirected into a file.
150           If the file is empty, no message is sent.
151
152       noprocbatch
153           This keyword disables the run of procbatch on innfeed dropped files
154           generated in its spool directory.  These files contain a list of
155           articles which were not correctly sent to peers.  By default, they
156           will be processed and removed afterwards.
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158       norenumber
159           This keyword disables the "ctlinnd renumber" operation.  Normally,
160           the low water marks for all newsgroups are reset in the active
161           file.
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163       norm
164           By default, any ctlinnd socket that has not been modified for two
165           days will be removed.  Using this keyword disables this function.
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167       norotate
168           By default, log processing includes rotating and cleaning out log
169           files.  Using this keyword disables the rotating and cleaning
170           aspect of the log processing:  the logs files are only scanned for
171           information and no contents are altered.  This keyword has no
172           effect if the nologs keyword is used.  The norotate keyword is
173           passed on to scanlogs if it is invoked.
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175       nostat
176           This keyword disables the status report generated by innstat.
177           Without this keyword, the status report is the first function
178           performed, just prior to obtaining the news.daily lock.
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180       notdaily
181           By default, news.daily expects to be run only once a day, and it
182           does various things (like rotating logs) that normally should only
183           be done on daily basis.  Use this keyword any extra times
184           news.daily is run in the day and the normal log files processing
185           (and rotation) will not be done.  This keyword implies nologs.
186
187       postexec=program
188           The program specified by the given path program is executed just
189           after all expiration is done.  Multiple programs may be specified;
190           they will be invoked in order.
191
192       procbatchdir=path
193           news.daily tries to find the backlog directory of innfeed in
194           innfeed.conf.  In case several instances of innfeed are running or
195           when its configuration file is not the default one, the
196           procbatchdir keyword can be used to specify the path of the backlog
197           directory.  This keyword can be used more than once in the command-
198           line.
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200       tmpdir=path
201           Overrides the pathtmp setting in inn.conf by setting the
202           environment variable $TMPDIR to the specified path.  Various parts
203           of the expire process, such as sort, will then use this path as the
204           directory for temporary files.
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HISTORY

207       news.daily and this manual page were written by Landon Curt Noll
208       <chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.
209       It was converted to POD by Julien Elie.
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SEE ALSO

212       active(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), expire.ctl(5), expireover(8),
213       expirerm(8), fastrm(8), inn.conf(5), innstat(8), newslog(5),
214       procbatch(8), scanlogs(8), shlock(1).
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218INN 2.6.5                         2022-01-23                     NEWS.DAILY(8)
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