1NEWS.DAILY(8) InterNetNews Documentation NEWS.DAILY(8)
2
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 or if enableoverview is true in
26 inn.conf);
27 • processing log files and rotating the archived log files with
29 scanlogs;
30 • processing innfeed dropped files with procbatch;
32 • processing spooled messages with rnews invoked with the -U flag;
34 • renumbering the active file with ctlinnd;
36 • rebuilding the history file with expire;
38 • removing any old socket files found in the pathrun directory;
40 • collecting all the output and mailing it.
42 Please note that this program should be run under the news
44 administrator's account (usually "news"), not as root. By default,
45 news.daily performs all of its functions and mails the output to the
46 news administrator, which is the user specified with --with-news-master
47 at configure time (it is "usenet" by default). You can also change
48 this behaviour with the mailto keyword.
49 By specifying keywords on the command line, it is possible to modify
51 the functions performed, as well as change the arguments given to
52 expire(8) and expireover(8). news.daily should be run once a day,
53 typically out of cron(8). Since it will slow the server down while it
54 is running, it should be run during periods of low server usage, such
55 as in the middle of the night. To run it at 3am, for example, add the
56 following entry to the news user's crontab file:
57 0 3 * * * <pathbin in inn.conf>/news.daily expireover lowmark
59 If you're using any non-CNFS storage methods, add the delayrm keyword
61 to the above option list for news.daily.
62 It may be run more often, but such invocations should at least use the
64 norotate keyword (or perhaps the notdaily keyword) to prevent the log
65 files from being processed and rotated too fast. The shlock(1) program
66 is used to prevent simultaneous executions.
67 The program specified by the given path /path/to/a/program is executed
69 just before any expiration is done. A typical use is to specify an
70 alternate expiration program and use the noexpire keyword. Multiple
71 programs may be specified; they will be invoked in order.
72
74 The following keywords may be used:
75 delayrm
77 This uses the -z flag when invoking expire and expireover. The
78 names of articles to be removed are written to a temporary file,
79 and then renamed after expiration by calling expirerm which in turn
80 calls fastrm.
81 expctl=path
83 Specify the file to use as the expire.ctl file for expire.
84 expdir=path
86 By default, expire builds the new history file and database in the
87 same directory as the current files. Using this keyword specifies
88 a different location to build the new files (by passing the -d flag
89 to expire), which will then be moved to the right location when
90 finished.
91 expireover
93 The expireover program is called after expiration to purge the
94 overview database. If no overview data is created, the expireover
95 keyword is not needed. This is the case when the server runs only
96 for feeders (no reader). By default, expireover is not called by
97 news.daily unless enableoverview is set to true in inn.conf.
98 expireoverflags=args
100 If the expireover keyword is used, this keyword may be used to
101 specify the flags to be passed to expireover. If the delayrm
102 keyword is used, then the default value is -z and the list of
103 deleted files; otherwise, the default value is -s.
104 flags=args
106 By default, expire is invoked with argument -v1. Using this
107 keyword changes the arguments to those specified. Be careful to
108 use quotes if multiple arguments are needed. This keyword has no
109 effect if the noexpire keyword is used.
110 lowmark
112 If the lowmark keyword is used, "ctlinnd lowmark" is used for
113 renumbering active. Normal "ctlinnd renumber" operation will take
114 long time. With the lowmark keyword, this will take less time. If
115 the lowmark keyword is used, the norenumber keyword is not needed
116 since news.daily specifies it implicitly.
117 If the lowmark keyword is given to news.daily, then the expireover
119 keyword must also be given; otherwise, that kind of renumbering
120 will not be taken into account.
121 mailto=address
123 By default, news.daily mails the report to the newsmaster address
124 specified with --with-news-master at configure time. The mailto
125 keyword can specify a different address to which to mail the
126 report. Note that using this keyword has no effect if the nomail
127 keyword is also specified.
128 noexpire
130 By default, expire is invoked to remove old news articles. Using
131 this keyword disables this function.
132 noexpireover
134 By default, expireover is invoked to remove old overview database
135 if enableoverview is set in inn.conf. Using this keyword disables
136 this function.
137 noexplog
139 expire normally appends information to pathlog/expire.log (see
140 newslog(5)). Using this keyword causes the expire output to be
141 handled as part of news.daily's output. It has no effect if the
142 noexpire keyword is used.
143 nologs
145 After expiration, scanlogs is invoked to process the log files.
146 Using this keyword disables all log processing functions.
147 nomail
149 news.daily normally sends a mail message containing the results to
150 the administrator. Using this keyword causes this message to be
151 sent to stdout and stderr instead. Normally, all utilities invoked
152 by the script have their stdout and stderr redirected into a file.
153 If the file is empty, no message is sent.
154 noprocbatch
156 This keyword disables the run of procbatch on innfeed dropped files
157 generated in its spool directory. These files contain a list of
158 articles which were not correctly sent to peers. By default, they
159 will be processed and removed afterwards.
160 norenumber
162 This keyword disables the "ctlinnd renumber" operation. Normally,
163 the low water marks for all newsgroups are reset in the active
164 file.
165 norm
167 By default, any ctlinnd socket that has not been modified for two
168 days will be removed. Using this keyword disables this function.
169 norotate
171 By default, log processing includes rotating and cleaning out log
172 files. Using this keyword disables the rotating and cleaning
173 aspect of the log processing: the logs files are only scanned for
174 information and no contents are altered. This keyword has no
175 effect if the nologs keyword is used. The norotate keyword is
176 passed on to scanlogs if it is invoked.
177 nostat
179 This keyword disables the status report generated by innstat.
180 Without this keyword, the status report is the first function
181 performed, just prior to obtaining the news.daily lock.
182 notdaily
184 By default, news.daily expects to be run only once a day, and it
185 does various things (like rotating logs) that normally should only
186 be done on daily basis. Use this keyword any extra times
187 news.daily is run in the day and the normal log files processing
188 (and rotation) will not be done. This keyword implies nologs.
189 postexec=program
191 The program specified by the given path program is executed just
192 after all expiration is done. Multiple programs may be specified;
193 they will be invoked in order.
194 procbatchdir=path
196 news.daily tries to find the backlog directory of innfeed in
197 innfeed.conf. In case several instances of innfeed are running or
198 when its configuration file is not the default one, the
199 procbatchdir keyword can be used to specify the path of the backlog
200 directory. This keyword can be used more than once in the command-
201 line.
202 tmpdir=path
204 Overrides the pathtmp setting in inn.conf by setting the
205 environment variable $TMPDIR to the specified path. Various parts
206 of the expire process, such as sort, will then use this path as the
207 directory for temporary files.
208
210 news.daily and this manual page were written by Landon Curt Noll
211 <chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.
212 It was converted to POD by Julien Elie.
213
215 active(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), expire.ctl(5), expireover(8),
216 expirerm(8), fastrm(1), inn.conf(5), innstat(8), newslog(5),
217 procbatch(8), scanlogs(8), shlock(1).
218INN 2.7.1 2023-03-07 NEWS.DAILY(8)