procbatch(8)

1PROCBATCH(8)              InterNetNews Documentation              PROCBATCH(8)
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NAME

6       procbatch - Process an INN funnel file or innfeed-dropped file
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SYNOPSIS

9       procbatch [-hquv] [-c [-s spooldir]] [-d outdir] [-e peer] [-m [-t
10       backlogdir]] batchfile
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DESCRIPTION

13       procbatch will take an INN funnel or innfeed-dropped file and split it
14       up by host for direct processing with innfeed or innxmit.
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16       While funnel files will normally only be of interest after a crash,
17       innfeed may drop articles for a variety of reasons, not all of which
18       indicate a fundamental problem.  For example, innfeed may drop articles
19       when started and stopped in quick succession while INN processes a
20       large number of control messages (a temporary indisposition), or when
21       INN feeds it articles for a site that isn't in innfeed.conf (a
22       misconfiguration).
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24       Every running innfeed opens a file named innfeed-dropped.<id>, which
25       should normally always be zero length and deleted on exit.  If there
26       are non-zero length files, innfeed has dropped some articles, and those
27       dropped article files have to be processed or those articles will never
28       be sent to peers.  Though news.daily automatically process these files
29       (invoking procbatch), it is also possible to do that manually.  First
30       make sure that the file doesn't correspond to a currently running
31       innfeed, for example by calling "ctlinnd flush innfeed!".
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33       An INN funnel file, or an innfeed-dropped file, will usually be of the
34       format:
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36           pathname message-id peer1 peer2 peer3 ...
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38       where pathname can alternatively be a storage API token.
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40       procbatch will break this file up into files named peer1.tmp,
41       peer2.tmp, peer3.tmp, etc. of the format:
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43           pathname message-id
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45       These tape files will be sorted and stripped of duplicate entries.
46       Simply renaming them to peer1, peer2, peer3, etc. in a running
47       innfeed's backlog directory will cause them to be picked up
48       automatically by innfeed every backlog-newfile-period seconds (as set
49       in in innfeed.conf).  Use the -m flag to have procbatch rename and move
50       them into place automatically.
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52       After running procbatch, you may want to make sure that every generated
53       backlog file has a corresponding ".lock" file.  Otherwise, innfeed
54       doesn't have that site configured as a peer, meaning your innfeed.conf
55       may need fixing.
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OPTIONS

58       -c  Check for the existence of an article before writing references to
59           it to the tape files.  Currently, this option can only be used with
60           a tradspool article store.  Using it with any other spool format
61           will lead to all articles being dropped.
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63       -d outdir
64           Put the output file(s) into the directory outdir (defaults to
65           pathtmp as set in inn.conf).  When also specifying -m, the
66           temporary output files will still be put here before being moved
67           into their final location.
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69       -e peer
70           Only process entries for peer.
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72       -h  Display a short help screen.
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74       -m  Directly append to tape files in innfeed's backlog directory.
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76       -q  Quiet mode: only display error messages.
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78       -s spooldir
79           Use spooldir as the location of the article spool (defaults to
80           patharticles as set in inn.conf).  This option has an effect only
81           on a tradspool storage system when also specifying -c.
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83       -t backlogdir
84           Use backlogdir as the location of the innfeed backlog directory
85           (the directory where the created tape files will be put).  Defaults
86           to pathspool/innfeed.  This option has an effect only when also
87           specifying -m.
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89       -u  Unlink the input batchfile after processing.
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91       -v  Add verbosity.
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EXAMPLES

94       Take the file innfeed-dropped.B012345, process its lines appending to
95       tapefiles in innfeed's backlog directory, and remove it when done.  Be
96       verbose while doing so:
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98           procbatch -umv innfeed-dropped.B012345
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100       Go through innfeed-dropped.B012345 saving entries for "peer1" in
101       /tmp/peer1.tmp, but only if the articles are still available in the
102       local tradspool:
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104           procbatch -e peer1 -d /tmp -c innfeed-dropped.B012345
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BUGS

107       procbatch should be able to check for the existence of articles with
108       any kind of article store, possibly using grephistory.
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HISTORY

111       procbatch was written by James Brister and improved for speed by
112       Clayton O'Neill.
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114       This manual page was written by Florian Schlichting, with the help of a
115       memo by Russ Allbery.
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