1NEWS.DAILY(8) InterNetNews Documentation NEWS.DAILY(8)
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6 news.daily - Perform daily Usenet maintenance tasks
7
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]
14
16 news.daily performs a number of important Usenet administrative
17 functions. This includes:
18 • producing a status report with innstat;
20 • removing old news articles (with expirerm if the delayrm keyword is
22 specified);
23 • purging the overview database with expireover if the corresponding
25 eponym keyword is specified;
26 • processing log files and rotating the archived log files with
28 scanlogs;
29 • processing innfeed dropped files with procbatch;
31 • renumbering the active file with ctlinnd;
33 • rebuilding the history file with expire;
35 • removing any old socket files found in the pathrun directory;
37 • collecting all the output and mailing it.
39 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.
46 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:
54 0 3 * * * <pathbin in inn.conf>/news.daily expireover lowmark
56 If you're using any non-CNFS storage methods, add the delayrm keyword
58 to the above option list for news.daily.
59 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.
64 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.
69
71 The following keywords may be used:
72 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.
78 expctl=path
80 Specify the file to use as the expire.ctl file for expire.
81 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.
88 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 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 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.
107 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.
114 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.
118 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.
125 noexpire
127 By default, expire is invoked to remove old news articles. Using
128 this keyword disables this function.
129 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.
134 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.
140 nologs
142 After expiration, scanlogs is invoked to process the log files.
143 Using this keyword disables all log processing functions.
144 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 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.
157 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.
162 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.
166 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.
174 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.
179 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 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 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.
199 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.
205
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.
210
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).
215INN 2.6.5 2022-01-23 NEWS.DAILY(8)