1NEWS.DAILY(8) System Manager's Manual NEWS.DAILY(8)
2
6 news.daily - do regular Usenet system administration
7
9 news.daily [ keyword... ]
10
13 News.daily performs a number of important Usenet administrative func‐
14 tions. This includes producing a status report, removing old news
15 articles, processing log files, rotating the archived log files, renum‐
16 bering the active file, removing any old socket files found in the
17 <pathrun in inn.conf> directory, and collecting the output. This pro‐
18 gram should be run under the news administrator's id, not as root.
19 By default, news.daily performs all of its functions and mails the out‐
21 put to the news administrator, <USER specified with --with-news-mas‐
22 ter at configure>. By specifying ``keywords'' on the command line, it
23 is possible to modify the functions performed, as well as change the
24 arguments given to expire(8) and expireover(8).
25 News.daily should be run once a day, typically out of cron(8). It may
27 be run more often, but such invocations should at least use the ``noro‐
28 tate'' keyword (or perhaps the ``notdaily'' keyword) to prevent the log
29 files from being processed and rotated too fast.
30 The shlock(1) program is used to prevent simultaneous executions.
32
34 The following keywords may be used:
35 delayrm
37 This uses the ``-z'' flag when invoking expire and expireover.
38 The names of articles to be removed are written to a temporary
39 file, and then renamed after expiration by calling expirerm(8).
40 expctl=path
42 Specify the file to use as the expire.ctl(5) file for expire.
43 expdir=path
45 By default, expire builds the new history(5) file and database
46 in the same directory as the current files. Using this keyword
47 specifies a different local to build the new files (by passing
48 the ``-d'' flag to expire), which will then be moved to the
49 right location when finished.
50 nostat This keyword disables the status report generated by innstat
52 (see innstat(8)). Without this keyword, the status report is
53 the first function performed, just prior to obtaining the
54 news.daily lock.
55 notdaily
57 By default news.daily expects to be run only once a day, and it
58 does various things (like rotating logs) that normally should
59 only be done on daily basis. Use this keyword any extra times
60 news.daily is run in the day and the normal logfile processing
61 (and rotation) will not be done.
62 noexpire
64 By default, expire is invoked to remove old news articles.
65 Using this keyword disables this function.
66 noexpireover
68 By default, expireover is invoked to remove old overview data‐
69 base, if enableoverview is set in inn.conf. Using this keyword
70 disables this function.
71 noexplog
73 Expire normally appends information to <pathlog in
74 inn.conf>/expire.log (see newslog(5)). Using this keyword
75 causes the expire output to be handled as part of news.daily's
76 output. It has no effect if the ``noexpire'' keyword is used.
77 flags='args for expire'
79 By default, expire is invoked with argument ``-v1''. Using this
80 keyword changes the arguments to those specified. Be careful to
81 use quotes if multiple arguments are needed. This keyword has
82 no effect if the ``noexpire'' keyword is used.
83 nologs After expiration, scanlogs(8) is invoked to process the log
85 files. Using this keyword disables all log processing func‐
86 tions.
87 norotate
89 By default, log processing includes rotating and cleaning out
90 log files. Using this keyword disables the rotating and clean‐
91 ing aspect of the log processing: the logs files are only
92 scanned for information and no contents are altered.
93 This keyword has no effect if the ``nologs'' keyword is used.
95 The ``norotate'' keyword is passed on to scanlogs if it is
96 invoked.
97 norenumber
99 This keyword disables the ctlinnd(8) renumber operation. Nor‐
100 mally, the low-water marks for all newsgroups (see active(5))
101 are reset.
102 norm By default, any socket ctlinnd socket that has not been modified
104 for two days will be removed. Using this keyword disables this
105 function.
106 nomail News.daily normally sends a mail message containing the results
108 to the administrator. Using this keyword causes this message to
109 be sent to stdout and stderr instead. Normally, all utilities
110 invoked by the script have their stdout and stderr redirected
111 into a file. If the file is empty, no message is sent.
112 expireover
114 The expireover program is called after expiration to purge the
115 overview databases. If no overview data is created, the
116 ``expireover'' keyword is not needed. This is the case that the
117 server runs only for feeder(no reader).
118 expireoverflags='args for expireover'
120 If the ``expireover'' keyword is used, this keyword may be used
121 to specify the flags to be passed to expireover. If the
122 ``delayrm'' keyword is used, then the default value is ``-z''
123 and the list of deleted files; otherwise, the default value is
124 ``-s''.
125 /full/path
127 The program specified by the given path is executed just before
128 any expiration is done. A typical use is to specify an alter‐
129 nate expiration program and use the ``noexpire'' keyword. Mul‐
130 tiple programs may be specified; they will be invoked in order.
131 postexec='post executed program'
133 The program specified by the given path is executed just after
134 all expiration is done. Multiple programs may be specified;
135 they will be invoked in order.
136 lowmark
138 If the ``lowmark'' keyword is used, ctlinnd(8) lowmark is used
139 for renumbering active. Normal ctlinnd(8) renumber operation
140 will take long time. With ``lowmark'' keyword this will take
141 less time. If the ``lowmark'' keyword is used, ``norenumber''
142 keyword is not needed, since news.daily specifies it implicitly.
143 tmpdir=path
145 Sets the environment variable TMPDIR to the specified path.
146 Various parts of the expire process, such as sort, will then use
147 this path as the directory for temporary files.
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150 News.daily and this manual page written by Landon Curt Noll
151 <chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>. This is revision
152 6398, dated 2003-07-12.
153
155 active(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), fastrm(8), inn.conf(5), newslog(5),
156 innwatch.ctl(5), shlock(1).
157 NEWS.DAILY(8)