noffle(1)noffle(1)NAMEnoffle - Usenet package optimized for dialup connections.
SYNOPSISnoffle-a | --article <message id>|all
noffle-c | --cancel <message id>
noffle-C | --create <local newsgroup name>
noffle-d | --database
noffle-D | --delete <newsgroup name>
noffle-e | --expire
noffle-f | --fetch [server pattern]
noffle-g | --groups
noffle-h | --help
noffle-l | --list
noffle-m | --modify desc <newsgroup name> <group description>
noffle-m | --modify post <local newsgroup name> (y|n)
noffle-n | --online
noffle-o | --offline
noffle-O | --outgoing [server pattern]
noffle-p | --post
noffle-q | --query groups|desc [server pattern]
noffle-B | --rebuild
noffle-R | --requested
noffle-r | --server [auth]
noffle-s | --subscribe-over <group>
noffle-S | --subscribe-full <group>
noffle-t | --subscribe-thread <group>
noffle-u | --unsubscribe <group>
DESCRIPTION
NOFFLE is an Usenet package optimized for low speed dialup Internet
connections and few users. The noffle program is used for running and
steering of the proxy news server, for retrieving new articles from the
remote server and for expiring old articles from the database. NOFFLE
can fetch newsgroups in one of the following modes:
full fetch full articles,
over fetch only article overviews by default. Opening an article
marks it for download next time online,
thread like over, but download articles full if an article of the same
thread already has been downloaded.
NOFFLE also offers limited support for local news groups. Articles
posted to these appear in full in the database for the local group(s)
immediately. They are expired in the usual way.
If an article is cross-posted to a local group and a remote group, it
appears in the local group immediately and in the remote group after
the next fetch from the remove server.
Note that NOFFLE cannot exchange the contents of local groups with
other news servers.
Many NOFFLE options are only available to news administrators. News
administrators are users who are either root, the NOFFLE news user
(typically news), or in the NOFFLE news group (typically group news).
OPTIONS-a, --article <message id>|all
Write article <message id> to standard output. Message Id must
contain the leading '<' and trailing '>' (quote the argument to
avoid shell interpretation of '<' and '>').
If "all" is given as message Id, all articles are shown.
-c, --cancel <message id>
Cancel the article from the database and remove it from the
queue of outbound messages if it has not already been sent. Mes‐
sage Id must contain the leading '<' and trailing '>' (quote the
argument to avoid shell interpretation of '<' and '>').
This option is only available to news administrators. It will
not cancel articles on remote news servers, use a cancel control
message instead if you need to do so.
-C, --create <local newsgroup name>
Create a new local newsgroup with the given name. The name
should conform to the usual newsgroup naming rules to avoid con‐
fusing newsreaders.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-d, --database
Write the complete content of the article database to standard
output.
-D, --delete <newsgroup name>
Delete the newsgroup with the given name. All articles that only
belong to the group are deleted as well.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-e, --expire
Delete all articles that have not been accessed recently from
the database. Should be run regularily from crond(8).
The default expire period is 14 days. This can be changed and
custom expiry periods set for individual newsgroups or sets of
newsgroups in /usr/local/etc/noffle.conf.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-f, --fetch [server pattern]
Get new newsfeed from the remote servers. Updates the list of
the existing newsgroups, fetches new articles overviews or full
articles from subscribed groups (see fetchlist ), delivers all
posted articles to the remote server, and retrieves all articles
marked for download. noffle--fetch should be run in the ip-up
script of pppd(8).
If a server pattern is specified, new articles will only be
fetched from matching servers from the list in noffle.conf.
Please see noffle.conf (5) for careful seeting of the settings
getgroups and omitgroups.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-g, --groups
List all groups available at remote server.
Format (fields separated by tabs):
<name> <server> <first> <last> <remote next> <post allowed>
<created> <last access> <desc>
-h, --help
Print a list of all options.
-l, --list
List all groups that are presently to be fetched and their fetch
mode.
Format: <groupname> <server> full|thread|over
-m | --modify desc <newsgroup name> <group description>
Modify the description of the named newsgroup.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-m | --modify post <local newsgroup name> <permission>
Modify the posting permission on a local newsgroup. <permission>
must be either 'y' (yes, posting allowed), 'm' (moderated, post‐
ing allowed only if article has 'Approved:' header) or 'n' (no,
posting not allowed). Attempts to post to a newsgroup with
posting disallowed will be rejected.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-n, --online
Put NOFFLE to online status. Requested articles or overviews of
selected groups are immediately fetched from the remote server.
Groups are not automatically subscribed to while in online mode,
making online mode ideal for tasting the content of unfamiliar
groups without subscribing to them. Should be run in the ip-up
script of pppd(8).
This option is only available to news administrators.
-o, --offline
Put NOFFLE to offline status. Requested articles not already in
the database are marked for download. Should be run in the ip-
down script of pppd(8).
This option is only available to news administrators.
-O | --outgoing [server pattern]
List message IDs and destination server of articles queued for
posting.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-p, --post
Read a news article from standard input and post it. Posting
always observes the group post permission flag. If a local
group is marked 'm' (moderated), the article must have an
'Approved:' header to be posted.
-q, --query groups|desc [server pattern]
Query information about all groups from the remote servers and
merge it to the groupinfo file. This must be run after
installing noffle or sometimes after a change of the remote news
server or corruption of the file. It can take some time on slow
connections. groups retrieves the list of the existing news‐
groups (resets all local article counters), desc retrieves all
newsgroup descriptions. If a server pattern is specified, only
matching servers from noffle.conf will be queried.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-r, --server [auth]
Run as NNTP server on standard input and standard output. This
is intended to be called by inetd(8) and should be registered in
/etc/inetd.conf. Error and logging messages are put to the sys‐
logd(8) daemon which is usually configured to write them to
/var/log/news. If the optional auth parameter is given, then
client authentication is enabled (assuming NOFFLE was built with
authentication enabled) regardless of the setting of the config‐
uration authenticate-client. A list of the NNTP commands that
are understood by noffle can be retrieved by running the server
and typing HELP.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-B, --rebuild
Rebuild the article database. This build a fresh copy of the
NOFFLE article database. All locally held groups are scanned,
and all articles currently active in those groups are copied
from the old article database to the new one. The new one then
replaces the old one. This can be useful in cases of article
database corruption.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-R, --requested
List articles that are marked for download.
Format: <message-id> <server>
-s, --subscribe-over <group>
Add group with name <group> to list of groups that are presently
to be fetched (in over mode).
This option is only available to news administrators.
-S, --subscribe-full <group>
Add group with name <group> to list of groups that are presently
to be fetched (in full mode).
This option is only available to news administrators.
-t, --subscribe-thread <group>
Add group with name <group> to list of groups that are presently
to be fetched (in thread mode).
This option is only available to news administrators.
-u, --unsubscribe <group>
Remove group with name <group> from list of groups that are
presently to be fetched.
This option is only available to news administrators.
-v, --version
Reports the NOFFLE version number.
NOTES
If the noffle prgram sees the name under which it is executed is inews,
it changes its behaviour to that described in inews(1).
FILES
NOFFLE takes its configuration from a configuration file, by default
/usr/local/etc/noffle.conf. For a description of this file, see nof‐
fle.conf(5).
NOFFLE keeps all its data files in a spool directory. /var/spool/nof‐
fle is the default location.
<spool dir>/fetchlist
List of newsgroups that are presently to be fetched.
<spool dir>/data/groupinfo.gdbm
Database with groups in gdbm(3) format.
<spool dir>/data/articles.gdbm
Database with articles in gdbm(3) format.
<spool dir>/lock/
Lock files and files indicating online/offline status.
<spool dir>/outgoing/
Posted articles to be delivered to the remote server.
<spool dir>/overview/
Text file per group with article overviews.
<spool dir>/requested/
Message IDs of articles marked for download.
SEE ALSOinews(1), noffle.conf(5), crond(8), inetd(8), pppd(8)
RFC 977, RFC 1036, RFC 2822, RFC 2980
IETF drafts on common NNTP extensions:
http://www.karlsruhe.org/
NOFFLE home page:
http://noffle.sourceforge.net
AUTHORS
Markus Enzenberger <me@markus-enzenberger.de>
Volker Wysk <volker.wysk@student.uni-tuebingen.de>
Jim Hague <jim.hague@acm.org>
Uwe Hermann <uh1763@bingo-ev.de>
Mirko Liss <mirko.liss@web.de>
1998-2003.
noffle(1)
