1INEWS(1) InterNetNews Documentation INEWS(1)
2
6 inews - Post a Usenet article to the local news server
7
9 inews [-ADEhHILNOPRSvVWXY] [-acdefFimnorstwx value] [-p port] [file]
10
12 inews reads a Usenet news article, perhaps with headers, from file or
13 standard input if no file is given. It adds some header fields and
14 performs some consistency checks. If the article does not meet those
15 checks, the article is rejected. If it passes the checks, inews sends
16 the article to the local news server as specified in the server
17 parameter in inn.conf.
18 By default, if a file named .signature exists in the home directory of
20 the posting user, it is appended to the post, preceded by a line that
21 contains only "-- ". Signatures are not allowed to be more than four
22 lines long.
23 Control messages other than cancel messages are only allowed if inews
25 is being run by the news user or by a user in the news group and if the
26 control message is recognized. If the article contains a Distribution
27 header field with a distribution that matches one of the bad
28 distribution patterns in inn/options.h (anything containing a period by
29 default), the message will be rejected. The message will also be
30 rejected if checkincludedtext is true in inn.conf, it contains more
31 quoted text than original text, and it is over 40 lines long.
32 If not provided, the Path header field body will be "not-for-mail". If
34 -x is given, its value will be added to the beginning of the Path
35 header field. You may for instance want to add a special
36 "path-identity" value related to the host running inews, which will
37 appear as "path-identity!not-for-mail" in the Path header field.
38 If posting fails, a copy of the failed post will be saved in a file
40 named dead.article in the home directory of the user running inews.
41 inews exits with a non-zero status if posting failed or with a zero
42 status if posting was successful.
43
45 Most of the options to inews take a single value and set the
46 corresponding header field body in the message that is posted. If the
47 value is more than one word or contains any shell metacharacters, it
48 must be quoted to protect it from the shell. Here are all the options
49 that set header fields and the corresponding header field body:
50 -a Approved
52 -c Control
53 -d Distribution
54 -e Expires
55 -F References
56 -f From
57 -m Message-ID
58 -n Newsgroups
59 -o Organization
60 -r Reply-To
61 -t Subject
62 -w Followup-To
63 -x Path (prefix)
64 The -x argument will be added to the beginning of the normal Path
66 header field body; it will not replace it contrary to what other
67 options do. This behaviour is historical, and was first implemented in
68 the inews program shipped with B News (the original meaning of -x was
69 to say not to forward the article to a specified site).
70 -A, -V, -W
72 Accepted for compatibility with C News. These options have no
73 affect.
74 -i, -I, -L, -s, -v, -X
76 Accepted for compatibility with tinews(1). These options have no
77 effect.
78 -D, -N
80 Perform the consistency checks and add header fields where
81 appropriate, but then print the article to standard output rather
82 than sending it to the server. -N is accepted as as synonym for
83 compatibility with C News.
84 -E If the article is empty (that is to say with no body), inews bails
86 out with an error. When -E is used, inews will just silently
87 discard the message and exit.
88 Note that control messages with no body are not rejected.
90 -h Normally, this flag should always be given. It indicates that the
92 article consists of headers, a blank line, and then the message
93 body. If it is omitted, the input is taken to be just the body of
94 the message, and any desired header fields have to be specified
95 with command-line options as described above.
96 -H Print to standard output a help message.
98 -O By default, an Organization header field will be added if none is
100 present in the article. To prevent adding the default (from
101 organization in inn.conf), use this flag.
102 -p port
104 Connect to the specified port on the server rather than to the
105 default (port 119).
106 -P inews computes a sender address with the username of the user
108 running inews and the hostname of the news server. It represents
109 the actual poster of the article.
110 By default, a Sender header field will be added with that value if
112 none is present in the article or if the From header field is not
113 already set to that value. Moreover, if a Sender header field is
114 already present, it will be replaced with that value.
115 To prevent adding or overwriting the Sender header field, use this
117 flag.
118 -R Reject all control messages.
120 -S Do not attempt to append ~/.signature to the message, even if it
122 exists.
123 -Y By default, inews authenticates to the remote news server only if
125 asked to, or if the initial NNTP banner corresponds to a state in
126 which postings are not allowed. Using this flag leads inews to
127 always authenticate, even if not asked to.
128
130 If the NNTP server requests authentication, inews will try to read
131 passwd.nntp to get the username and password to use and will therefore
132 need read access to that file. This is typically done by making that
133 file group-readable and adding all users who should be able to use
134 inews to post to that server to the appropriate group.
135 inews used to do even more than it does now, and all of the remaining
137 checks that are not dependent on the user running inews should probably
138 be removed in favor of letting the news server handle them.
139 Since INN's inews uses inn.conf and some other corners of an INN
141 installation, it's not very appropriate as a general stand-alone inews
142 program for general use on a system that's not running a news server.
143 Other, more suitable versions of inews are available as part of various
144 Unix news clients or by themselves. We try to keep compatibility with
145 the flags other implementations use (like C News, inews-xt and
146 tinews(1)).
147
149 Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. Rewritten
150 in POD by Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>.
151
153 inn.conf(5), passwd.nntp(5), rnews(1).
154INN 2.7.1 2023-04-16 INEWS(1)