NEWSX(8)NEWSX(8)NAMEnewsx - news server exchange; post and fetch news articles
SYNOPSISnewsx [ options ] [ spoolname [ [ hostname ] port ] ]
DESCRIPTIONnewsx is a client connecting to an NNTP server, posting outgoing arti‐
cles batched by the news system, while also fetching new incoming arti‐
cles from the same newsserver.
It provides the NNTP capabilities required for serving a small local
news spool such as those that may be found on installations with NNTP
access through limited ISP accounts only, as well as being suitable for
exchanging news with supplemental news sources for full scale news
servers.
OPERATION
The program would normally be run by user news.
When started, newsx will go through the spoolname outgoing spool queue,
and attempt to post all articles therein to the NNTP server hostname.
If a username and password for use with the simple authorization proto‐
col have been supplied, they will be sent to the server first. If the
-r option is specified, a MODE READER command will be sent.
When the outgoing transfer is finished, articles will be removed from
the outgoing spool queue if successful transfer has been acknowledged
by the NNTP host, if the article was specified by the host as a dupli‐
cate (already posted), or if a spooled article can no longer be found.
The fetch phase is then initiated. Articles available from the
newsserver will be fetched and placed in the incoming spool, ready to
be injected into the news system by newsrun (C News) or rnews -U (INN).
The groups are visited in the sequence that they appear in the host
incoming state file, see in.hosts(5). This may be used actively to
prioritize between newsgroups. A tag mechanism controlled by the -e
option is available to limit the number of groups that will be fetched.
Group names not present in the active file will not be fetched. Every
group name is checked against the spoolname entries in the sys (C News)
or newsfeeds (INN) file, as well as any --groups option, and only
groups allowed there will actually be fetched. For C News, the group
name is also checked against the ME entry, whereas in INN the ME entry
is just prepended to the spoolname entry.
In this way, the sys/newsfeed file is used to control which newsgroups
are actually received from the remote site, in the same manner that the
local server determines which outgoing article will go where.
If an -e option hasn't been specified, the local active file is then
traversed to see if there are groups not mentioned in the current host
newsrc file. Again, only groups allowed by sys or newsfeeds is actu‐
ally fetched. Since these groups don't have a starting point specified,
all available articles will be fetched.
To avoid transferring cross-posted articles more than once, articles
with messags IDs already fetched in the same session will not be
fetched again.
To make multiple news sources to be used in an efficient manner, arti‐
cles present in the history database will be skipped.
The pull phase can be omitted entirely by using the -g option.
Statistics on the connection will be logged to syslog (or stderr with
-d). The posted article count is the total number of articles actually
posted. The duplicate count is how many message IDs from posted mes‐
sages that were found to already exist on the remote system. The miss‐
ing count is those posted articles that could no longer be found
locally, usually because they were canceled locally, or perhaps since
they were expired already.
The connection time and the total number of characters transferred via
the NNTP layer is logged, in addition to the average speed of article
transfer. The speed given is the net rate, the calculation being based
on the actual number of characters belonging to news article head and
body parts.
A log file may be specified with the -l option, and a folder of posted
messages maintained with the -f option.
ARGUMENTS
options
As detailed below.
spoolname
The name of the outgoing spool queue. If not specified, the
value of the NNTPSERVER environment variable will be used.
hostname
The hostname of the remote NNTP server to connect to. If not
specified, the name of the spool will be used.
port The port used for connecting to hostname. Will usually not need
to be specified, and port "nntp" will be assumed. The port name
"telnet" will receive special treatment.
OPTIONS FOR LOGGING-f folder, --posted folder
Posted articles will be appended to the standard mail folder
indicated. Note that the article will be added to the folder
the first time posting of an article is attempted. The actual
status of the posting will appear in the log file.
-l logfile, --log logfile
Log information about successfully posted articles to the file
indicated.
--stat statfile
A summary of article exchange statistics will be logged to the
file indicated.
--scanlogs
Obey locks set by the INN scanlogs utility. This is currently
only meaningfull for use with a modified scanlogs that under‐
stands newsx logs.
OPTIONS FOR NEWS ACCESS-a authfile, --auth authfile
If specified, the username and password combination found in
authfile will be sent to the server as part of the simple autho‐
rization protocol when the connection is first made. The file
should consist of a line with two blank-separated words, the
first being the username, the second the password. Do ensure
that this file only has read access only for those users that
need to know.
--authgeneric
Authentication with the server is performed using AUTHINFO
GENERIC. This works by spawning a child process via /bin/sh
string, where string is set in the environment variable NNT‐
PAUTH. This process is expected to handle the authentication
portion of the connection.
-r, --reader
A MODE READER command is sent to the remote server. This is used
when connecting to remote INN hosts that needs it, and is the
default state when using --ihave. With ihave, the command is
issued between the ihave and fetch phase, otherwise the command
is issued initially.
--no-reader
No MODE READER command is sent to the remote server. This is the
default state when not using --ihave.
--readbeforeauth
Send the MODE READER command before attempting to authenticate
via an AUTHINFO command. Otherwise, it is sent after the authen‐
tication. This option will obviously have no effect unless you
also specify both --reader and one of --authgeneric or --auth
authfile.
-w chatfile, --chat chatfile
Use chatfile to control any special connect sequence that may be
required before the NNTP protocol is connected. Only implemented
for the "telnet" protocol.
-x command, --exec command
If specified, the command will be executed after the host port
has been opened. This option is used in rare cases when special
tricks has to be employed to get an NNTP connection activated.
-y program, --connect program
If specified, connect via a bidirectional pipe to program
instead of to a socket. The hostname and port arguments will be
ignored.
OPTIONS FOR POSTING-p, --no-post
Do not attempt to do any posting.
--ihave
Use NNTP IHAVE mechanism for submitting news messages, instead
of the default POST. If this is for forwarding news in general,
and not necessarily news generated locally, the setting of the
--fail and --bounce option should be carefully reviewed.
-m, --no-msgid
Remove any message-ID header field from the posted message. This
should cause the receiving end to generate a fresh message-ID.
It should never been used together with --ihave.
-k, ----keep-path
Keep the Path when posting. In posting mode, the Path is by
default stripped together with the NNTP-Posting-Host and Xref
header items, so that the path of the news article as posted
will appear to start at the actual posting host. With --ihave,
the path is always included.
--continue
Ignore (but report) errors about non-existing outgoing spools,
and continue with news fetching instead.
--max-path len
All outgoing articles are checked to see if the length of
their paths are not too long. This is an extra precaution
against inadvertently submitting foreign articles for posting.
This option sets the maximum path length allowed. The default
value is 1, consistent with a simple, local, newsspool. To dis‐
able this feature, set it to an impossibly large value, like
999.
OPTIONS FOR FETCHING-g, --no-fetch
Do not attempt to fetch any news articles.
-e end_tag, --end end_tag
Specify a tag in the incoming host state file, see in.hosts(5).
News fetching will end when a corresponding tag line has been
reached. The tag line consists of a colon followed by the tag
itself. This is a useful tool for dividing the newsgroups into
several categories. Only a few newsgroups may be fetched during
prime time, whereas the full list can be fetched once every
night, for instance.
-W winsize, --window winsize
Specify the window size with respect to how many outstanding
NNTP requests will be allowed at any one time. The default set‐
ting is 10. A value of 0 will disable windowing (aka. stream‐
ing) completely, making debugging easier. Increasing the window
can significantly improve the article transfer speed. The
effect is particulary pronounced over slow links and when many
of the articles are already present in the local spool, where an
improvement in speed of over 10 times has been observed compared
to running with windowing disabled. All this at the penalty of
an increased host newsserver load, obviously.
-b minspool, --size minspool
Specify the minimum incoming spool size. After every new group,
if the spool file has reached the byte size specified, a new
spool batch will be made. Setting this value to 1 will cause
every newsgroup to be placed in a separate spool.
--rnews
Pipe incoming messages directly to rnews instead of placing them
into the in-coming spool.
--pipe-to program
Pipe incoming messages to program instead of placing them into
the in-coming spool. A separate program and pipe is initiated
for each incoming message.
--rnews-to program
Like --pipe-to, but the pipe is continuous for each session,
with article seperation is in rnews style.
-z, --sync
Omit actual pulling of news articles. Instead, simply update the
host incoming state file to synchronize with the currently high‐
est available article numbers from the server in question. This
option can be useful when a fresh local spool is initiated. No
article posting will be attempted. See also in.hosts(5).
-Z, --syncnew
Omit actual pulling of news articles in previously unseen groups
only. The net effect is that newly added groups will start
fetching from now on, instead of from the first article avail‐
able at the host server.
--reset
Ignore the latest article information in the host incoming state
file and attempt fetching all articles available from the
server, subject to the normal history lookup constraints. This
option is useful if the remote spool has been reconfigured. See
also in.hosts(5).
--filter filterprog
Enable message filtering via the program filterprog. Uses the
highwind interface model, where each article is given to the
filter in NNTP-fashion, and the filter responds with a 335 to
accept, and a 435 to reject a message.
--mfilter filterprog
Enable filtering by message ID. The filterprog will be invoked
once for each unseen message, with the message ID as a command
line argument. A non-zero return status will prevent the mes‐
sage from being transferred. This function is obsolete, and
will probably be removed in later versions.
-X num, --maxnew num
Fetch at most num articles from each new and previously unseen
newsgroup.
--maxart num
Fetch at most num articles from each newsgroup. Note that this
might cause articles to be silently lost.
--no-path
Unless the exclusion pattern is set to newsx, all incoming arti‐
cles are checked to see if their path is consistent with the
exclusions given in /usr/local/news/etc/newsfeeds. This option
omits this check.
--forget-inactive
Remove information in the incoming hosts state file about news‐
groups that are removed from the /usr/local/news/db/active file.
See also in.hosts(5).
--minfree N
Don't fetch news if there are less than N kbytes free space in
the news spool.
--group list
Specify pattern for groups to be fetched that will apply in
addition to the ones in /usr/local/news/etc/newsfeeds. The syn‐
tax is basically the same as for INN newsfeeds(5). It is recom‐
mended to put list in single quotes, since shells may otherwise
treat the ! character in strange ways. For a list that speci‐
fies only negations, an initial '*' clause will be assumed.
This options is particularily useful to specify unsymmetric behaviour,
i.e.
groups where there will be outgoing traffic, but no incoming
articles. For instance, to explicitly avoid fetching of control
groups, use:
--groups '!control.*'
It can also be useful to specify that only a subset of groups should be
fetched for the occasion, e.g:
--groups 'comp.*,!*.advocacy'
It is recommended to put the argument for --groups in single quotes.
GENERAL OPTIONS-c, --cnews
Set to C News mode as opposed to INN. Controls details regarding
handling of spool and lock files.
-i, --inn
Set to INN mode as opposed to C News. Controls details regarding
handling of spool and lock files.
--newline
Uses single newline character as line terminator instead of the
carriage return, line feed sequence.
-v, --version
Display program version. Include this when reporting bugs to
http://www.kvaleberg.com/bug/
--help Give a very brief usage summary.
--no-ps
Do not update the process status display.
OPTIONS FOR NEWSGROUPS
Note: Unless otherwise specified, these options are in addition to the
usual actions and do not imply --no-post or --no-fetch. Specify those
switches if desired.
--list listname
Obtain a list of newsgroups from the newsserver to listname.
The list consists of one line per newsgroup, containing the
newsgroup name, a blank, and a letter showing the group status
(usually 'y' for an active group, 'm' for a moderated group).
If the first character is a '|',
listname is assumed to be a program path which will receive the
list as standard input (you will need to put the entire argument
in quotes to escape the usual shell interpretation of '|'). If
it is a single '-', the list will appear on the standard output.
Otherwise it will be assumed to be a filename.
--newlist listname
Obtain a list of newsgroups not currently present on the local
server from the newsserver to listname. The list is also sub‐
ject to the limitations of the sys or newsfeeds file. The oper‐
ation is otherwise as for the --list option.
--desc descname
Obtain a list of newsgroups descriptions from the newsserver to
descname. Only descriptions for locally active newsgroups rele‐
vant to the newsfeed in question will be fetched.
The list consists of one line per newsgroup, containing the newsgroup
name,
a tab, and a short textual description. A pipe may be specified
in descname kist as for the --list option.
--alldesc descname
Obtain a list of all newsgroups descriptions available from the
newsserver to descname. The operation is otherwise as for the
--desc option.
OPTIONS FOR ERROR HANDLING-t timeout, --timeout timeout
Specify timeout for TCP/IP and lockfile operations, in seconds.
The default value is 600.
--fail time
Specify the maximum age of an article. Whenever an attempt of
posting an article fails, and the specified time limit is
exceeded, the article will be declared as failed, and a bounce
message will be generated. The default unit is hours; the suf‐
fixes s for seconds, m for minutes, h for hours, d for days and
w for weeks would change this. They can also be combined, e.g.
"4h30m". In absence of this option, no fail by age will be per‐
formed. Setting the time to zero will bounce messages after the
first failed attempt.
--bounce addr
Specify the destination address for messages bounced due to the
fail time being exceeded. If addr is specified as none, no
bounce will be generated. The default value, poster, causes
messages to be returned to the sender. This setting should defi‐
nitely only be used in situations where newsx is utilized for
posting locally generated news.
--attach how
Specifies the way the original message is handled for bounced
messages:
mime Send the original as a Mime attachement. This is the default be‐
haviour.
yes Append the original to the mail message itself.
no Do not attach the original message.
OPTIONS MOSTLY FOR NEWS GATEWAYS
The following options are not for ordinary use: They would only be used
for special configurations where newsx is used as a sort of gateway to
inject news messages from other sources.
--inews
Pipe incoming messages directly to inews, inject them into the
local spool via the same interface as is used for local new mes‐
sages.
--inews-options options
Specify command line options for --inews. The leading '-' must
be included. The default inews options are "-hOS".
--add-header header
Add a specific header to incoming messages. The header will be
added exactly as specified, adding a trailing newline.
The exception is for the special 4 letter string "Path".
This will be replaced by a header line that says "Path: HOST‐
NAME!not-for-mail" if the incoming message contains no Path:.
This can be quite essential for news gateways to prevent
injected messages to be retured back to the source.
OPTIONS FOR PROFILE FILES--profile file
Read a newsx profile from file . This file can contain command
line options to specify default newsx behaviour. See
newsx.conf(5) for an overview of the format.
Any option may be used in profile files. Some options are really only
meaningfull in profile files:
--spoolname spoolname
Specify a default spoolname.
--hostname hostname
Specify a default hostname.
--port port
Specify a default port for connecting to hostname.
OPTIONS FOR CONFIGURATION
Configuration to the local news system peculiarities is traditionally
done at build-time, but it is possible to specify at runtime in various
ways.
--config
Read and obey the standard news configuration file in
/usr/local/news/lib/innshellvars. This allows newsx to adapt to
changes in the local newsserver configuration dynamically.
--config-is configfile
Like --config, except that the configuration filename is speci‐
fied. A list of files may also be specified, seperated by
colons. In this case, the first file on this list that exists
will be used.
--home newshome
Use newshome as the news home directory instead of the default
/usr/local/news. A full path must be specified.
-s spooldir, --spool spooldir
Use spooldir as the news article spool directory instead of the
default /usr/local/news/spool/articles. A full path must be
specified.
--togo togofile
Specify the name of the C News togo file for outgoing news. No
effect in INN mode. Required only if different from the default
value /usr/local/news/spool/outgoing/spoolname/togo. A leading
'/' specifices a full path, a leading '.' is relative from the
current directory, otherwise the name is relative to
/usr/local/news/spool/outgoing/spoolname.
--batch batchdir
Use batchdir as the outgoing news article spool directory
instead of the default /usr/local/news/bin. A leading '/'
specifices a full path, a leading '.' is relative from the cur‐
rent directory, otherwise the name is relative to
/usr/local/news/spool/articles.
-h historydb, --history historydb
Specify the name of the history database file, used for checking
if news articles are already present in the spool. Required
only when using a name different from the default
/usr/local/news/db/history. An empty argument "" will prevent
any referrence to the news history database.
--active activefile
Specify the name of the active newsgroup file for incoming news.
Required only if different from the default value
/usr/local/news/db/active. A leading '/' specifices a full
path, a leading '.' specifies a path relative to the current
directory, otherwise the name is relative to /usr/local/news.
--newsfeeds newsfeedsfile
Specify the name of the newsfeed specification file. This will
override the default both in C News (sys) and INN (newsfeeds)
modes. File name conventions as for --active.
--incoming incomingdir
Use incomingdir as the incoming news article spool directory
instead of the default /usr/local/news/spool/incoming. Fine
name conventions as for --active, except that the default direc‐
tory is /usr/local/news/spool/articles.
--inhosts inhostsdir
Use inhostsdir as the news host active file directory instead of
the default /usr/local/news/spool/inhosts. Name conventions as
for --incoming. See also in.hosts(5).
--hostconfig hostconfigdir
Use hostconfigdir as the directory for the host specific pro‐
file. instead of the default /usr/local/news/spool/arti‐
cles/in.hosts. Name conventions as for --incoming. See also
newin.hosts(5) and newsx.conf(5).
OPTIONS FOR TESTING AND DEBUGGING--debug level
Set debug level. Any level different from zero diverts reporting
to stderr instead of syslog, and turns on extra debugging out‐
put. Level 2 will output a '.' for every new article. Level 3
will log all NNTP commands. Level 4 will produce the same state
information that is available via the process status display.
Going to level 5 will produce additional debug information,
level 6 will include history database debug, while level 7 also
will show all communications over the NNTP socket, article con‐
tent included.
-d, --verbose
Enable debugging, and sets the debug level according to the num‐
ber of times it is specified.
-n, --dry-run
No-action flag, will "fake" an NNTP connection, and leave the
outgoing batch untouched. Probably useful only with --debug for
debugging and dry-testing.
--verify
Used together with --configor --config-is, causes the configura‐
tion to be verified, but not adapted to.
-o, --keepold
Keep the previous outgoing spool in an ".old" file. This might
seem like a useful option for ordinary use, but the problem is
that a non-empty file might cause a news watch program to
believe there is a stale outgoing spool.
-u, --no-force
After the timeout of lockfile operations, just give up and do
not attempt to unlock the lockfiles and remove the stale
process.
--no-queue
Do not queue up for access to a news host. If a lock already
exists for the specified host, just give up and don't queue up
for it.
--locks locksdir
Use locksdir as the lock file directory instead of the default
/usr/local/news/run. Fine name conventions as for --active,
except that the default directory is /usr/local/news. If the
string none is supplied, no locking will occur. All this should
of course be used only if you really, really know what you are
doing.
-q "msgid", --enquire "msgid"
Enquires whether the msgid is present in the local history data‐
base. The msgid should include the angle brackets. Implies --no-
post and --no-fetch.
--no-hostlock
Do not implement the newsx host access lock. Should only be used
if you really know what you are doing.
--no-next
Do not use the NNTP NEXT command. This causes newsx not to
attempt to use NEXT for filling out gaps in the article
sequence.
--missing "num"
Tunes the number of missing articles in a row before a NEXT com‐
mand is issued, instead of a sequential STAT. A value of zero
will cause NEXT to be used extensively. The default value is 0
if no window, 2 if a window is specified.
--keep-fake
Some remote news servers generate faked news articles. Normally,
you would want newsx to skip them, but with this option you can
actually fetch them.
SPECIAL CONNECT SEQUENCE
The -w option specifies that a special connect sequence is required,
and that a script for this sequence can be found in the chatfile. This
file consists of lines that contains pattern receive and send pairs,
separated by blanks. The patterns may be enclosed in quotes. The
script is currently only available for the "telnet" protocol.
A typical invocation line would be:
newsx-w chat.acme acme login.acme.net telnet
The file chat.acme could look like this:
# login for acme.net NNTP
login: myusername
Password: mypassword
$ "exec telnet news.acme.net nntp"
ECHO
The script will have to be adapted for local conditions, of course.
The special tag ECHO specifies that line echo should be suppressed,
required since the host telnet operates in line mode.
Since this file usually contains passwords and other sensitive informa‐
tion, ensure that read access to it is limited.
PROCESS STATUS
The ps process status will also show the current newsx status. During
the actual news transfer phase, it will show which group and article
number that is being fetched. A continuous status can be obtained by;
newsq -c
This feature can be disabled via the --no-ps option.
CONFIGURATION FORMAT
For INN, the following configuration items will be used:
$INND Signals an INN configuration.
$NEWSBIN
Directory for INN binaries.
$NEWSHOME
News home directory.
$PATHETC
Directory for news configuration files. Defaults to $NEWSHOME if
not available.
$SPOOL If $SPOOL contains the string "/articles", the incoming host
directory $INHOSTS will be formed by replacing it with
"/inhosts". Otherwise, "$SPOOL/in.hosts" will be used.
$BATCH Outgoing spool.
$INCOMING
Incoming spool.
$ACTIVE
Active file.
$HISTORY
History database.
$LOCKS DIrectory for lockfiles.
$NEWSFEEDS
Newsfeeds file.
$EXTENDEDDBZ
True is history database in extended format. Only relevant for
early INN 2.x where there is no libinn, otherwise ignored.
For C News:
$NEWSBIN
$NEWSCTL
Equivalent to INN $NEWSHOME. $ACTIVE will be "$NEWSCTL/active".
$HISTORY will be "$NEWSCTL/history". $NEWSFEEDS will be
"$NEWSCTL/sys". $LOCKS and $PATHETC will be "$NEWSCTL".
$NEWSARTS
Equivalent to INN $SPOOL. $BATCH will be "$NEWSARTS/out.going".
$INCOMING will be "$NEWSARTS/in.coming". $INHOSTS will be
"$NEWSARTS/in.hosts".
LOG FILE FORMAT
The -l log file of posted articles will contain one line for each arti‐
cle. To be compatible with the INN format, each field is separated by
a tabstop:
Month Standard 3 letter abbreviation.
Date 2 digits
HH:MM:SS
Local time.
Year 4 digits.
Spool Name of outgoing spool.
<Msgid>
Within angle brackets.
Filename
As it appears in the spool file.
Sender The value of the Sender-field, or From-field if no Sender is
available.
Status "OK" for successfully posted items, "Duplicate" for items
already posted.
Lines Number of lines in the posting.
Status Message status. "OK" if everything went well, otherwise an error
message appears.
INCOMING SPOOL FORMAT
The incoming spool consists of files with the file name ending by ".t".
Each file can contain many articles. Each article is prefixed by the
following header:
#! rnews N
The number N is the number of bytes of the article proper, not counting
the header line. The article follows after the header line. It appears
exactly as received from the news server except that CR/LF sequences
are replaced by proper newlines, and the terminating full stop is not
included.
MESSAGE HEADER HANDLING
Incoming message headers will pass through without modification, with
the exception that the text "newsx" will be added if not there already
when the exclusion pattern for the newshost is set to "newsx".
Most outgoing message header items will also pass through, altough some
header items are handled specially:
From: Will be used for indentifying the sender if everything else
fails.
Message-ID:
Will be used for logging purposes. The --no-msgid will remove
this item for messages being posted.
NNTP-Posting-Date:
NNTP-Posting-Host:
Will always be removed for messages being posted.
Path: Will be removed for messages being posted, unless the ----keep-
path option is given.
Reply-to:
Will be used for indentifying the sender.
Sender:
Will be used for indentifying the sender.
Xref: Will always be removed from outgoing messages.
X-Server-Date:
X-Trace:
X-Complaints-To:
Will always be removed for messages being posted.
DIAGNOSTICSnewsx returns error codes as follows:
0 - Successful completion
1 - General system error
2 - Incorrect arguments supplied.
3 - Error connecting to remote host
4 - NNTP Protocol error
5 - Errors accessing outgoing spool file.
6 - Errors accessing host newsrc file.
7 - Errors accessing incoming spool file.
8 - Errors accessing local active and sys files.
9 - Socket access error (e.g. connection timeout)
10 - Errors accessing authinfo file.
11 - Connect script failure.
12 - Option -q did not find the message ID.
13 - Wait for lock timed out.
NOTES
Distribution fields are ignored by newsx, and the handling of them left
to the news server.
BUGS
Report any bugs to http://www.kvaleberg.com/bug/
FILES
See also in.hosts(5).
/usr/local/news/etc/newsx.conf
Newsx standard profile. If it exists, this profile file will be read
before the command line arguments are parsed. See newsx.conf(5).
/usr/local/news/lib/innshellvars
The standard news configuration file.
For C News:
/usr/local/news/spool/outgoing/spoolname/togo
Spool file
/usr/local/news/spool/outgoing/spoolname/togo.old
Previous spool file
/usr/local/news/spool/outgoing/spoolname/LOCKb
Lock file
/usr/local/news/spool/incoming/.tmp.$$
Incoming spool, temporary file. $$ is the process ID.
/usr/local/news/spool/incoming/T.$$.S.t
Incoming spool, when finished and ready for newsrun. T is the
current Unix time, $$ is the process ID, and, S is a sequence
number.
/usr/local/news/db/active
Local active file, contains a list over all currently active
newsgroups in the local spool. This is used as a basis for con‐
structing a list over which newsgroups will actually be
requested.
/usr/local/news/sys
Newsserver configuration file. This is used as a filter against
the local active list, deciding which newsgroups which will
actually be pulled. The basic format of each specification is:
site/exclusions:grouplist/distlist:flags:cmd
If the exclusions field is set to newsx, newsx will modify the
path of incoming news to include the "newsx" pattern.
The site field identifies the remote news source.
The grouplist is a comma separated list of group pattern names.
A !-prefix signifies exclusions, and the name all matches any‐
thing.
/usr/local/news/db/history
/usr/local/news/db/history.pag
/usr/local/news/db/history.dir
Local news spool database.
For INN:
/usr/local/news/spool/outgoing/spoolname
Spool file
/usr/local/news/spool/outgoing/spoolname.old
Previous spool file
/usr/local/news/run/LOCK.spoolname
Lock file
/usr/local/news/db/active
Local active file, contains a list over all currently active
newsgroups in the local spool. This is used as a basis for con‐
structing a list over which newsgroups will actually be
requested.
/usr/local/news/etc/newsfeeds
Newsserver configuration file. This is used as a filter against
the local active list, deciding which newsgroups which will
actually be pulled. The basic format of each specification is:
site/exclusions:grouplist/distlist:flags:param
If the exclusions field is set to newsx, newsx will modify the
path of incoming news to include the "newsx" pattern.
The site field identifies the remote news source.
The grouplist is a comma separated list of group pattern names.
A !-prefix signifies groups not exchanged, and the name *
matches anything.
/usr/local/news/db/history
/usr/local/news/db/history.pag
/usr/local/news/db/history.dir
Local news spool article database.
AUTHOR
Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>
SEE ALSOnewsq(1), in.hosts(5)
C News: news(5), newsdb(5), newssys(5), rnews(8)
INN: rnews(1), inews(1), wildmat(3), active(5), history(5), news‐
feeds(5), ctlinnd(8)
RFC-977 - Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
RFC-1036 - Usenet Article Format
http://www.kvaleberg.com/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.html
http://www.kvaleberg.com/newsx.html
NEWSX(8)
