|
Name |
|
Date |
Size |
#Lines |
LOC |
| .. | | 03-May-2022 | - |
| dbz/ | H | 20-May-2003 | - | 5,823 | 3,735 |
| doc/ | H | 20-May-2003 | - | 2,134 | 1,720 |
| lib/ | H | 20-May-2003 | - | 1,997 | 1,084 |
| more/ | H | 20-May-2003 | - | 1,163 | 794 |
| src/ | H | 03-May-2022 | - | 12,419 | 7,176 |
| test/ | H | 20-May-2003 | - | 943 | 620 |
| AUTHORS | H A D | 20-May-2003 | 320 | 7 | 5 |
| COPYING | H A D | 31-Oct-2002 | 17.6 KiB | 341 | 281 |
| ChangeLog | H A D | 18-May-2003 | 10 | 3 | 1 |
| FAQ | H A D | 22-Jan-2003 | 18.2 KiB | 534 | 346 |
| INSTALL | H A D | 22-Jan-2003 | 6.5 KiB | 175 | 122 |
| Makefile | H A D | 20-May-2003 | 68 | 9 | 7 |
| Makefile.am | H A D | 22-Jan-2003 | 1.3 KiB | 57 | 12 |
| Makefile.in | H A D | 18-May-2003 | 15.4 KiB | 515 | 393 |
| NEWS | H A D | 18-May-2003 | 21.3 KiB | 695 | 433 |
| README | H A D | 18-May-2003 | 17.3 KiB | 494 | 353 |
| README.in | H A D | 22-Jan-2003 | 17.1 KiB | 494 | 353 |
| TODO | H A D | 21-Jan-2003 | 2.2 KiB | 108 | 57 |
| aclocal.m4 | H A D | 18-May-2003 | 35.8 KiB | 1,009 | 855 |
| autogen.sh | H A D | 22-Jan-2003 | 2.3 KiB | 88 | 66 |
| config.guess | H A D | 31-Oct-2002 | 16.9 KiB | 601 | 510 |
| config.h.in | H A D | 18-May-2003 | 6.9 KiB | 299 | 199 |
| configure | H A D | 03-May-2022 | 242.6 KiB | 8,608 | 7,162 |
| configure.ac | H A D | 18-May-2003 | 25.8 KiB | 893 | 831 |
| depcomp | H A D | 12-Dec-2002 | 11.8 KiB | 424 | 278 |
| install-sh | H A D | 31-Oct-2002 | 4.7 KiB | 239 | 152 |
| missing | H A D | 21-Jan-2003 | 10 KiB | 337 | 263 |
| mkinstalldirs | H A D | 31-Oct-2002 | 730 | 37 | 21 |
| newsx.spec.in | H A D | 21-Jan-2003 | 3.3 KiB | 152 | 120 |
README
1
2
3 Newsx - An NNTP client for posting and fetching news
4 ====================================================
5
6 Version 1.6
7 Written by Egil Kvaleberg
8
9 ------
10
11Newsx is an NNTP client for Unix. It will connect to a remote NNTP server
12and post outgoing articles batched by the news system, as well as fetch
13incoming articles.
14
15It provides the NNTP capabilities required for small local news spools on
16installations with NNTP access only through limited ISP accounts. It works
17well via a dialup SLIP/PPP connection.
18
19Newsx is also well suited for large spools with normal feeds, being used for
20pulling newsgroups from specific NNTP servers that are not distributed in
21the usual manner. Since newsx obeys the normal news spool configuration file
22and requires little or no specific configuration, the administrative burden
23should be minimized.
24
25- Compatible with C News and INN local news servers.
26
27- Configuration relies on standard C News and INN mechanisms for setting
28 up newsservers and newsgroups, making administration easy.
29
30- Comprehensive error recovery for posting as well as for fetching. Failed
31 postings will be retried at the next opportunity, while fetching will
32 resume at the point where it stopped.
33
34- Logging of errors that occurred, as well as article transfer statistics.
35 Optional log file for actual articles posted, and collection of posted
36 articles in folders.
37
38- Has been designed to be nice, so as not to overload the remote news
39 server.
40
41- Uses only standard RFC-977 functions, so should be compatible with the
42 vast majority of news servers.
43
44- Refers to news history database to prevent fetching of articles already
45 in the local spool. Will not fetch crossposted articles more than once.
46 Does not rely on Xref, since many sites does not provide it.
47
48- Interfaces to spam filters like cleanfeed.
49
50Newsx was originally written in C under Linux, but due to the magic of
51Gnu automake and autoconf it should now be very portable. Unassisted
52system configuration is done by means of said Gnu autoconf.
53
54
55PULLING NEWS
56------------
57
58News transfer via fetching (sucking, slurping, pulling) to local news
59spools is sometimes claimed to be an inefficient way of transferring news
60compared to connecting newsreaders directly to the remote NNTP server.
61
62The fact of the matter is that if set up and used correctly, exactly the
63opposite is the case.
64
65A local news spool allows news transfer to occur at off-peak hours,
66thereby decreasing the host server load in the critical period. This will
67tie up less modems at peak hours, as well as decreasing the connect time
68since the actual transfer will run much quicker.
69
70A fetch-based system is also easier to administrate then the feeding kind,
71since every site decides for itself what groups it will exchange with whom.
72The major down-side is that article propagation times will be longer. For
73sites that are leaf nodes in the news distribution tree, this is usually not
74very important.
75
76Much of the problems connected with news pulling is connected to the use
77of the RFC-977 NEWNEWS command. Most news servers has implemented this
78command in an inefficient manner, which will put severe loads on the
79newsserver. Newsx does not use NEWNEWS.
80
81
82ARCHIVE
83-------
84
85In this archive you should find the following files:
86
87README To you what `Drink Me' was to Alice.
88INSTALL Documentation re. configuration and installation
89COPYING The GNU General Public License
90FAQ Frequently asked questions
91NEWS Versions
92configure For making a `Makefile'
93Makefile.in Input to `configure'
94README.in README original - make changes here
95autogen.sh For rebuild everything maintained by autoconf and automake
96configure.ac For autoconf
97config.guess For autoconf
98config.h.in For autoconf, generated by autoheader
99install-sh For autoconf
100mkinstalldirs For autoconf
101missing For autoconf
102acconfig.h For autoconf
103aclocal.m4 For autoconf
104newsx.spec For building a rpm: rpm -bb newsx.spec
105doc Directory for man-pages and misc. documentation
106dbz Directory for database source code
107src Directory for newsx source code
108lib Directory for misc. source code
109test Directory for test code
110
111
112CONFIGURE, COMPILE, AND INSTALL
113-------------------------------
114
1151. Set up your local news server first. Newsx auto-configuration depends
116 on the news server files and directories it finds and where.
117
1182. Glance at ./INSTALL to see if you need any special configuration
119 options. Run ./configure with the options you prefer.
120
1213. Type `make', and hopefully you will get the newsx executable.
122
1234. Type `su' to become root, and then `make install' to install the
124 executables and the man pages.
125
126
127QUICK START -- GENERAL
128----------------------
129
130Newsx moves articles between servers, so you need to have a working local
131news server with at least one newsgroup in order to test newsx. There are
132two basic tests:
133
1341. Can an article locally posted to the newsgroup and queued by the news
135 server for delivery to the remote server be successfully sent to the
136 remote server, and
137
1382. Can articles from the remote server be fetched and placed in the
139 local server's "in" queue.
140
141The "QUICK START WITH INN/C-NEWS" instructions below walk you through these
142tests.
143
144By default, an in.hosts/$server file is built automatically and will fetch
145all articles in all groups listed in active (except as limited by the sys
146file or command line options). It is sometimes worthwhile to set up this
147file by hand rather than accept the default.
148
149Special case #1:
150 * you've been reading news DIRECTLY from one or more REMOTE servers,
151 * you're now setting up a local server, AND
152 * you'd like to avoid downloading articles you've already seen.
153
154 You can copy your $HOME/.newsrc file and use it as the initial
155 in.hosts/$server file! The (remote server's) article numbers will be
156 extracted, and if you use "--forget-inactive" the first time you call
157 `newsx', groups that were in .newsrc that you've unsubscribed to will be
158 eliminated from in.hosts/$server, and current and future downloading
159 will be limited to only the groups you're subscribed to at the time.
160 (This does not "track" newsgroup subscription changes you make later.)
161
162Special case #2:
163 * you've been running a local server for some time and have lots of
164 newsgroups in 'active' that you don't want fetched.
165
166 Use the 'active' file or a .newsrc file, remove the article numbers
167 (assuming they're the local server's article numbers), trim the list
168 down to the groups you want, and use that as the in.hosts/$server
169 file.
170
171WARNING:
172 Newsgroups can have LOTS of articles. Please look at the newsx man page
173 descriptions of --maxnew, --syncnew, and --maxart before running newsx
174 to pull articles from the remote server the first time.
175
176
177QUICK START WITH INN
178--------------------
179
180We assume that you already have INN installed. What you have to do is:
181
182SETUP:
183 1. Do all maintenance of the news system as user `news'. Ensure
184 that the `.profile' of this user defines a path that includes
185 `/usr/lib/news/bin'. E.g.:
186
187 export PATH="$PATH:/usr/lib/news/bin"
188
189 2. Ensure that an outgoing batch has been configured in
190 `/etc/news/newsfeeds'. If the NNTP host is named `news.acme.net',
191 a minimum configuration might be:
192
193 ME:::
194 news.acme.net/newsx:*,!junk*,!control*:Tf,Wf:
195
196 In many cases, it will be a good to add the last line shown above
197 to an existing configuration file.
198
199 The outgoing batch will be named `news.acme.net' - replace
200 `news.acme.net' with what is appropriate for your configuration.
201
202 The name of the batch does not HAVE the same as the name of the server,
203 but it is often convenient.
204
205 All groups that you do NOT want to exchange with the host in question
206 should be listed with an ! before it, the `junk' group being a
207 standard fitment.
208
209 NOTE: Depending on how you use the spool, you may want to replace
210 the special `newsx' in the example above with the particular exclude
211 string for the newsserver in question.
212
213 3. If you haven't done so already, create one or more newsgroups in the
214 `/var/lib/news/active' file that you will be fetching from the remote
215 newsserver:
216
217 ctlinnd newgroup acme.test
218
219FETCH TEST:
220 4. Dry-run test fetching news articles for these groups by doing:
221
222 newsx -ddddd -n --maxnew 100 news.acme.net
223
224 If the output looks correct, try running it for real (using your
225 preference of --maxnew, --maxart, and --syncnew options):
226
227 newsx -dd --maxnew 100 news.acme.net
228
229 5. The articles should now appear in the incoming batch
230 `/var/spool/news/incoming'. If you invoke:
231
232 rnews -U
233
234 the incoming articles should appear in the news spool. In the
235 example, you may look for them in `/var/spool/news/articles/acme/test'.
236
237POST TEST:
238 6. Using a newsreader, post an article to a suitable test group. Try to
239 use a group with as small distribution as possible, preferably local
240 to the external newsserver you are using. If you haven't done so
241 already, the group must be in the `/var/lib/news/active' file.
242
243 The next time that `rnews' is invoked, the articles will be output to
244 the spool file `/var/spool/news/outgoing/acme' specified in the
245 `/etc/news/newsfeeds' file.
246
247 7. Run:
248
249 newsx -ddddd -n acme news.acme.net
250
251 to do a `dry test' to ensure that everything is set up correctly. No
252 external connection is required.
253
254 8. Now, fire up the connection and do it for real:
255
256 newsx -dd acme news.acme.net
257
258 Check that everything runs smoothly. The `-dd' may be removed when you
259 are sure everything works as expected. To maintain a log of posted
260 articles, as well as a folder containing all articles, you can do:
261
262 newsx -l posted.log -f posted acme news.acme.net
263
264 9. You may want to arrange for automatic news exchange by using `crontab'.
265 It is usually good to invoke `newsrun' before and after the newsx
266 session.
267
26810. For more information about how to set up news and other subjects related
269 to use of ordinary ISP accounts, you might want to consult:
270
271 http://www.kvaleberg.com/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.html
272 ftp://ftp.sn.no/user/egilk/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.txt
273
274
275QUICK START WITH C News
276-----------------------
277
278We assume that you already have C News installed. What you have to do is:
279
280SETUP:
281 1. Do all maintenance of the news system as user `news'. Ensure
282 that the `.profile' of this user defines a path that includes
283 `/usr/lib/news/bin'. E.g.:
284
285 export PATH="$PATH:/usr/lib/news/bin"
286
287 2. Ensure that an outgoing batch has been configured in `/usr/lib/news/sys'.
288 If the NNTP host is named `news.acme.net', a minimum configuration
289 might be:
290
291 ME:all/all::
292 acme/newsx:all,!junk,!control/all:FL:
293
294 The filename of the outgoing batch will be the server's name, `acme' in
295 the example above. Replace `acme' with what is appropriate for your
296 configuration.
297
298 All groups that you do NOT want to exchange with the host in question
299 should be listed with an `!' before it, the `junk' group being a
300 standard fitment.
301
302 The L-flag is a double insurance that only actual local postings will
303 be sent out.
304
305 NOTE: Depending on how you use the spool, you may want to replace the
306 special `newsx' in the example above with the particular exclude string
307 for the newsserver in question. This is particularly true if you are
308 sending and receiving news with multiple servers or if the local system
309 names you're using aren't the name the servers use for themselvers in
310 "Path:".
311
312 3. If you haven't done so already, create one or more newsgroups in the
313 `/var/lib/news/active' file that you will be fetching from the remote
314 newsserver:
315
316 addgroup acme.test y
317
318FETCH TEST:
319 4. Dry-run test fetching news articles for these groups by doing:
320
321 newsx -ddddd -n --maxnew 100 acme news.acme.net
322
323 If the output looks correct, try running it for real (using your
324 preference of --maxnew, --maxart, and --syncnew options):
325
326 newsx -dd --maxnew 100 acme news.acme.net
327
328 5. The articles should now appear in the incoming batch
329 `/var/spool/news/incoming'. If you invoke:
330
331 newsrun
332
333 the incoming articles should appear in the news spool. For newsgroup
334 acme.test, articles would be placed in `/var/spool/news/articles/acme/test/'.
335
336POST TEST:
337 6. Using a newsreader, post an article to a suitable test group. Try to
338 use a group with as small distribution as possible, preferably local
339 to the external newsserver you are using. If you haven't done so
340 already, the group must be in the `/var/lib/news/active' file.
341
342 The next time that `newsrun' is invoked, the articles will be output
343 to the spool file `/var/spool/news/outgoing/acme/togo' specified in the
344 `/usr/lib/news/sys' file.
345
346 7. Continue with point 7 in the INN explanation above.
347
348
349MAILING LISTS
350-------------
351
352If you want to be informed about future newsx versions and receive
353possible bug alerts, you can send an email message to:
354
355 majordomo@kvaleberg.no
356
357with the following line in the message body:
358
359 subscribe newsx-announce
360
361If you want to join the newsx discussion list, you can send an
362email message to the same address with the following line in the
363message body:
364
365 subscribe newsx
366
367The Usenet newsgroup news.software.nntp is also a suitable forum for
368discussing newsx.
369
370
371LEGAL MATTER
372------------
373
374Copyright 2003 Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>
375
376This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
377it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
378the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
379(at your option) any later version.
380
381This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
382but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
383MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
384GNU General Public License for more details.
385
386You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
387along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
388Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
389
390
391ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
392---------------
393
394The DBZ database manager is copyright 1988 Jon Zeeff, and has been
395modified by a number of people.
396
397The NNTP header file is copyright 1994 David Alden and The Ohio State
398University.
399
400The getopt library is copyright 1987, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95
401Free Software Foundation, Inc.
402
403Autoconf is copyright 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 Free Software
404Foundation, Inc.
405
406Automake is copyright 1994, 1995, 1996 1997 Free Software Foundation,
407Inc.
408
409The wildmat function is written by Rich $alz in 1986.
410
411Ansi2knr is copyright 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 Aladdin Enterprises.
412
413The hashing function used for the INN 2.0 history database is derived
414from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm, and is
415copyright 1990 RSA Data Security, Inc.
416
417INN 2.0 is Copyright (c) 1996 by Internet Software Consortium.
418
419The setenv function is Copyright (c) 1987 Regents of the University of
420California.
421
422Please refer to the respective source files for a full description of the
423terms that apply.
424
425Thanks to the following individuals for constructive comments and
426improvements:
427
428 Greg Wooledge <wooledge@kellnet.com>
429 Riku Saikkonen <rjs@isil.lloke.dna.fi>
430 Simon J Mudd <sjmudd@redestb.es>
431 Laurent Frigault <frigault@isicom.fr>
432 Gerhard Zuber <zuber@berlin.snafu.de>
433 Bruce Fisher <bruce@smtl.co.uk>
434 Tim Tuck <tim_tuck@yes.optus.com.au>
435 Stanislav Protassov <st@sw.org.sg>
436 Brian Buhrow <buhrow@cats.ucsc.edu>
437 Michael Faurot <mfaurot@phzzzt.atww.org>
438 Rachel Polanskis <r.polanskis@nepean.uws.edu.au>
439 Stoty <stoty@legba.tvnet.hu>
440 Arne Georg Gleditsch <arnegl@ifi.uio.no>
441 Randall Shutt <rshutt@extacy.ravenet.com>
442 Rene Hoejbjerg Larsen <renehl@post1.tele.dk>
443 J. Richard Sladkey <jrs@foliage.com>
444 Filip Lingier <filip@filtronix.eunet.be>
445 Joacim Persson <sp2joap1@ida.his.se>
446 Andreas Jaeger <aj@arthur.pfalz.de>
447 Janne Snabb <snabb@niksula.hut.fi>
448 Frank Tarczynski <ftarz@mindspring.com>
449 Jason Brown <jbrown@interalpha.co.uk>
450 Knut Anders Hatlen <kahatlen@riksnett.no>
451 Adrian Bridgett <adrian.bridgett@poboxes.com>
452 Paul Tomblin <ptomblin@xcski.com>
453 Helmut Heller <heller@altoetting-online.de>
454 Michele Bini <mbini@dada.it>
455 Per Hedeland <per@erix.ericsson.se>
456 Uli Zappe <uli@zappe.de>
457 Nikolay Grigoriev <shadow@aanet.ru>
458 Peter Maydell <pmaydell@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
459 Steinar Haug <sthaug@nethelp.no>
460 Stefan Huelswitt <huels@iname.com>
461 Winston Edmond <wbe@psr.com>
462 Petter Gustad <petter@gustad.com>
463 G. Paul Ziemba <paul@treehouse.napa.ca.us>
464 Bernhard R. Erdmann <be@berdmann.de>
465 Briggs, John H <John.H.Briggs@team.telstra.com>
466 Carlo Fusco <messer_samvise@libero.it>
467 Gorka Olaizola <gorka@escomposlinux.org>
468 Niels Heinen <zillion@snosoft.com>
469 Jochen Schmitt <Jochen@herr-schmitt-de>
470 Andreas Metzler <ametzler@logic.univie.ac.at>
471
472
473CONTACT INFORMATION
474-------------------
475
476All comments, changes you had to make for specific systems, bug
477reports, bug fixes, etc. can be reported to:
478
479 http://www.kvaleberg.com/bug/
480
481There is also a mailing list available, as described before.
482
483Although not a requirement of the license terms, you are according
484to ancient news software tradition encouraged to send a postcard to
485the following address if you find the program useful:
486
487 Egil Kvaleberg
488 Husebybakken 14A
489 NO-0379 Oslo
490 Norway
491
492
493$Id: README.in,v 1.59.2.15 2003/01/22 13:15:25 egil Exp $
494
README.in
1
2
3 Newsx - An NNTP client for posting and fetching news
4 ====================================================
5
6 Version @VERSION@
7 Written by Egil Kvaleberg
8
9 ------
10
11Newsx is an NNTP client for Unix. It will connect to a remote NNTP server
12and post outgoing articles batched by the news system, as well as fetch
13incoming articles.
14
15It provides the NNTP capabilities required for small local news spools on
16installations with NNTP access only through limited ISP accounts. It works
17well via a dialup SLIP/PPP connection.
18
19Newsx is also well suited for large spools with normal feeds, being used for
20pulling newsgroups from specific NNTP servers that are not distributed in
21the usual manner. Since newsx obeys the normal news spool configuration file
22and requires little or no specific configuration, the administrative burden
23should be minimized.
24
25- Compatible with C News and INN local news servers.
26
27- Configuration relies on standard C News and INN mechanisms for setting
28 up newsservers and newsgroups, making administration easy.
29
30- Comprehensive error recovery for posting as well as for fetching. Failed
31 postings will be retried at the next opportunity, while fetching will
32 resume at the point where it stopped.
33
34- Logging of errors that occurred, as well as article transfer statistics.
35 Optional log file for actual articles posted, and collection of posted
36 articles in folders.
37
38- Has been designed to be nice, so as not to overload the remote news
39 server.
40
41- Uses only standard RFC-977 functions, so should be compatible with the
42 vast majority of news servers.
43
44- Refers to news history database to prevent fetching of articles already
45 in the local spool. Will not fetch crossposted articles more than once.
46 Does not rely on Xref, since many sites does not provide it.
47
48- Interfaces to spam filters like cleanfeed.
49
50Newsx was originally written in C under Linux, but due to the magic of
51Gnu automake and autoconf it should now be very portable. Unassisted
52system configuration is done by means of said Gnu autoconf.
53
54
55PULLING NEWS
56------------
57
58News transfer via fetching (sucking, slurping, pulling) to local news
59spools is sometimes claimed to be an inefficient way of transferring news
60compared to connecting newsreaders directly to the remote NNTP server.
61
62The fact of the matter is that if set up and used correctly, exactly the
63opposite is the case.
64
65A local news spool allows news transfer to occur at off-peak hours,
66thereby decreasing the host server load in the critical period. This will
67tie up less modems at peak hours, as well as decreasing the connect time
68since the actual transfer will run much quicker.
69
70A fetch-based system is also easier to administrate then the feeding kind,
71since every site decides for itself what groups it will exchange with whom.
72The major down-side is that article propagation times will be longer. For
73sites that are leaf nodes in the news distribution tree, this is usually not
74very important.
75
76Much of the problems connected with news pulling is connected to the use
77of the RFC-977 NEWNEWS command. Most news servers has implemented this
78command in an inefficient manner, which will put severe loads on the
79newsserver. Newsx does not use NEWNEWS.
80
81
82ARCHIVE
83-------
84
85In this archive you should find the following files:
86
87README To you what `Drink Me' was to Alice.
88INSTALL Documentation re. configuration and installation
89COPYING The GNU General Public License
90FAQ Frequently asked questions
91NEWS Versions
92configure For making a `Makefile'
93Makefile.in Input to `configure'
94README.in README original - make changes here
95autogen.sh For rebuild everything maintained by autoconf and automake
96configure.ac For autoconf
97config.guess For autoconf
98config.h.in For autoconf, generated by autoheader
99install-sh For autoconf
100mkinstalldirs For autoconf
101missing For autoconf
102acconfig.h For autoconf
103aclocal.m4 For autoconf
104newsx.spec For building a rpm: rpm -bb newsx.spec
105doc Directory for man-pages and misc. documentation
106dbz Directory for database source code
107src Directory for newsx source code
108lib Directory for misc. source code
109test Directory for test code
110
111
112CONFIGURE, COMPILE, AND INSTALL
113-------------------------------
114
1151. Set up your local news server first. Newsx auto-configuration depends
116 on the news server files and directories it finds and where.
117
1182. Glance at ./INSTALL to see if you need any special configuration
119 options. Run ./configure with the options you prefer.
120
1213. Type `make', and hopefully you will get the newsx executable.
122
1234. Type `su' to become root, and then `make install' to install the
124 executables and the man pages.
125
126
127QUICK START -- GENERAL
128----------------------
129
130Newsx moves articles between servers, so you need to have a working local
131news server with at least one newsgroup in order to test newsx. There are
132two basic tests:
133
1341. Can an article locally posted to the newsgroup and queued by the news
135 server for delivery to the remote server be successfully sent to the
136 remote server, and
137
1382. Can articles from the remote server be fetched and placed in the
139 local server's "in" queue.
140
141The "QUICK START WITH INN/C-NEWS" instructions below walk you through these
142tests.
143
144By default, an in.hosts/$server file is built automatically and will fetch
145all articles in all groups listed in active (except as limited by the sys
146file or command line options). It is sometimes worthwhile to set up this
147file by hand rather than accept the default.
148
149Special case #1:
150 * you've been reading news DIRECTLY from one or more REMOTE servers,
151 * you're now setting up a local server, AND
152 * you'd like to avoid downloading articles you've already seen.
153
154 You can copy your $HOME/.newsrc file and use it as the initial
155 in.hosts/$server file! The (remote server's) article numbers will be
156 extracted, and if you use "--forget-inactive" the first time you call
157 `newsx', groups that were in .newsrc that you've unsubscribed to will be
158 eliminated from in.hosts/$server, and current and future downloading
159 will be limited to only the groups you're subscribed to at the time.
160 (This does not "track" newsgroup subscription changes you make later.)
161
162Special case #2:
163 * you've been running a local server for some time and have lots of
164 newsgroups in 'active' that you don't want fetched.
165
166 Use the 'active' file or a .newsrc file, remove the article numbers
167 (assuming they're the local server's article numbers), trim the list
168 down to the groups you want, and use that as the in.hosts/$server
169 file.
170
171WARNING:
172 Newsgroups can have LOTS of articles. Please look at the newsx man page
173 descriptions of --maxnew, --syncnew, and --maxart before running newsx
174 to pull articles from the remote server the first time.
175
176
177QUICK START WITH INN
178--------------------
179
180We assume that you already have INN installed. What you have to do is:
181
182SETUP:
183 1. Do all maintenance of the news system as user `@DOC_NEWSUSER@'. Ensure
184 that the `.profile' of this user defines a path that includes
185 `@DOC_NEWSBIN@'. E.g.:
186
187 export PATH="$PATH:@DOC_NEWSBIN@"
188
189 2. Ensure that an outgoing batch has been configured in
190 `@DOC_NEWSFEEDS@'. If the NNTP host is named `news.acme.net',
191 a minimum configuration might be:
192
193 ME:::
194 news.acme.net/newsx:*,!junk*,!control*:Tf,Wf:
195
196 In many cases, it will be a good to add the last line shown above
197 to an existing configuration file.
198
199 The outgoing batch will be named `news.acme.net' - replace
200 `news.acme.net' with what is appropriate for your configuration.
201
202 The name of the batch does not HAVE the same as the name of the server,
203 but it is often convenient.
204
205 All groups that you do NOT want to exchange with the host in question
206 should be listed with an ! before it, the `junk' group being a
207 standard fitment.
208
209 NOTE: Depending on how you use the spool, you may want to replace
210 the special `newsx' in the example above with the particular exclude
211 string for the newsserver in question.
212
213 3. If you haven't done so already, create one or more newsgroups in the
214 `@DOC_ACTIVE@' file that you will be fetching from the remote
215 newsserver:
216
217 ctlinnd newgroup acme.test
218
219FETCH TEST:
220 4. Dry-run test fetching news articles for these groups by doing:
221
222 newsx -ddddd -n --maxnew 100 news.acme.net
223
224 If the output looks correct, try running it for real (using your
225 preference of --maxnew, --maxart, and --syncnew options):
226
227 newsx -dd --maxnew 100 news.acme.net
228
229 5. The articles should now appear in the incoming batch
230 `@DOC_INCOMING@'. If you invoke:
231
232 rnews -U
233
234 the incoming articles should appear in the news spool. In the
235 example, you may look for them in `@DOC_SPOOL@/acme/test'.
236
237POST TEST:
238 6. Using a newsreader, post an article to a suitable test group. Try to
239 use a group with as small distribution as possible, preferably local
240 to the external newsserver you are using. If you haven't done so
241 already, the group must be in the `@DOC_ACTIVE@' file.
242
243 The next time that `rnews' is invoked, the articles will be output to
244 the spool file `@DOC_BATCH@/acme' specified in the
245 `@DOC_NEWSFEEDS@' file.
246
247 7. Run:
248
249 newsx -ddddd -n acme news.acme.net
250
251 to do a `dry test' to ensure that everything is set up correctly. No
252 external connection is required.
253
254 8. Now, fire up the connection and do it for real:
255
256 newsx -dd acme news.acme.net
257
258 Check that everything runs smoothly. The `-dd' may be removed when you
259 are sure everything works as expected. To maintain a log of posted
260 articles, as well as a folder containing all articles, you can do:
261
262 newsx -l posted.log -f posted acme news.acme.net
263
264 9. You may want to arrange for automatic news exchange by using `crontab'.
265 It is usually good to invoke `newsrun' before and after the newsx
266 session.
267
26810. For more information about how to set up news and other subjects related
269 to use of ordinary ISP accounts, you might want to consult:
270
271 http://www.kvaleberg.com/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.html
272 ftp://ftp.sn.no/user/egilk/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.txt
273
274
275QUICK START WITH C News
276-----------------------
277
278We assume that you already have C News installed. What you have to do is:
279
280SETUP:
281 1. Do all maintenance of the news system as user `@DOC_NEWSUSER@'. Ensure
282 that the `.profile' of this user defines a path that includes
283 `@DOC_NEWSBIN@'. E.g.:
284
285 export PATH="$PATH:@DOC_NEWSBIN@"
286
287 2. Ensure that an outgoing batch has been configured in `@DOC_NEWSHOME@/sys'.
288 If the NNTP host is named `news.acme.net', a minimum configuration
289 might be:
290
291 ME:all/all::
292 acme/newsx:all,!junk,!control/all:FL:
293
294 The filename of the outgoing batch will be the server's name, `acme' in
295 the example above. Replace `acme' with what is appropriate for your
296 configuration.
297
298 All groups that you do NOT want to exchange with the host in question
299 should be listed with an `!' before it, the `junk' group being a
300 standard fitment.
301
302 The L-flag is a double insurance that only actual local postings will
303 be sent out.
304
305 NOTE: Depending on how you use the spool, you may want to replace the
306 special `newsx' in the example above with the particular exclude string
307 for the newsserver in question. This is particularly true if you are
308 sending and receiving news with multiple servers or if the local system
309 names you're using aren't the name the servers use for themselvers in
310 "Path:".
311
312 3. If you haven't done so already, create one or more newsgroups in the
313 `@DOC_ACTIVE@' file that you will be fetching from the remote
314 newsserver:
315
316 addgroup acme.test y
317
318FETCH TEST:
319 4. Dry-run test fetching news articles for these groups by doing:
320
321 newsx -ddddd -n --maxnew 100 acme news.acme.net
322
323 If the output looks correct, try running it for real (using your
324 preference of --maxnew, --maxart, and --syncnew options):
325
326 newsx -dd --maxnew 100 acme news.acme.net
327
328 5. The articles should now appear in the incoming batch
329 `@DOC_INCOMING@'. If you invoke:
330
331 newsrun
332
333 the incoming articles should appear in the news spool. For newsgroup
334 acme.test, articles would be placed in `@DOC_SPOOL@/acme/test/'.
335
336POST TEST:
337 6. Using a newsreader, post an article to a suitable test group. Try to
338 use a group with as small distribution as possible, preferably local
339 to the external newsserver you are using. If you haven't done so
340 already, the group must be in the `@DOC_ACTIVE@' file.
341
342 The next time that `newsrun' is invoked, the articles will be output
343 to the spool file `@DOC_BATCH@/acme/togo' specified in the
344 `@DOC_NEWSHOME@/sys' file.
345
346 7. Continue with point 7 in the INN explanation above.
347
348
349MAILING LISTS
350-------------
351
352If you want to be informed about future newsx versions and receive
353possible bug alerts, you can send an email message to:
354
355 majordomo@kvaleberg.no
356
357with the following line in the message body:
358
359 subscribe newsx-announce
360
361If you want to join the newsx discussion list, you can send an
362email message to the same address with the following line in the
363message body:
364
365 subscribe newsx
366
367The Usenet newsgroup news.software.nntp is also a suitable forum for
368discussing newsx.
369
370
371LEGAL MATTER
372------------
373
374@PACKAGE_COPYRIGHT@
375
376This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
377it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
378the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
379(at your option) any later version.
380
381This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
382but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
383MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
384GNU General Public License for more details.
385
386You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
387along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
388Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
389
390
391ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
392---------------
393
394The DBZ database manager is copyright 1988 Jon Zeeff, and has been
395modified by a number of people.
396
397The NNTP header file is copyright 1994 David Alden and The Ohio State
398University.
399
400The getopt library is copyright 1987, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95
401Free Software Foundation, Inc.
402
403Autoconf is copyright 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 Free Software
404Foundation, Inc.
405
406Automake is copyright 1994, 1995, 1996 1997 Free Software Foundation,
407Inc.
408
409The wildmat function is written by Rich $alz in 1986.
410
411Ansi2knr is copyright 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 Aladdin Enterprises.
412
413The hashing function used for the INN 2.0 history database is derived
414from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm, and is
415copyright 1990 RSA Data Security, Inc.
416
417INN 2.0 is Copyright (c) 1996 by Internet Software Consortium.
418
419The setenv function is Copyright (c) 1987 Regents of the University of
420California.
421
422Please refer to the respective source files for a full description of the
423terms that apply.
424
425Thanks to the following individuals for constructive comments and
426improvements:
427
428 Greg Wooledge <wooledge@kellnet.com>
429 Riku Saikkonen <rjs@isil.lloke.dna.fi>
430 Simon J Mudd <sjmudd@redestb.es>
431 Laurent Frigault <frigault@isicom.fr>
432 Gerhard Zuber <zuber@berlin.snafu.de>
433 Bruce Fisher <bruce@smtl.co.uk>
434 Tim Tuck <tim_tuck@yes.optus.com.au>
435 Stanislav Protassov <st@sw.org.sg>
436 Brian Buhrow <buhrow@cats.ucsc.edu>
437 Michael Faurot <mfaurot@phzzzt.atww.org>
438 Rachel Polanskis <r.polanskis@nepean.uws.edu.au>
439 Stoty <stoty@legba.tvnet.hu>
440 Arne Georg Gleditsch <arnegl@ifi.uio.no>
441 Randall Shutt <rshutt@extacy.ravenet.com>
442 Rene Hoejbjerg Larsen <renehl@post1.tele.dk>
443 J. Richard Sladkey <jrs@foliage.com>
444 Filip Lingier <filip@filtronix.eunet.be>
445 Joacim Persson <sp2joap1@ida.his.se>
446 Andreas Jaeger <aj@arthur.pfalz.de>
447 Janne Snabb <snabb@niksula.hut.fi>
448 Frank Tarczynski <ftarz@mindspring.com>
449 Jason Brown <jbrown@interalpha.co.uk>
450 Knut Anders Hatlen <kahatlen@riksnett.no>
451 Adrian Bridgett <adrian.bridgett@poboxes.com>
452 Paul Tomblin <ptomblin@xcski.com>
453 Helmut Heller <heller@altoetting-online.de>
454 Michele Bini <mbini@dada.it>
455 Per Hedeland <per@erix.ericsson.se>
456 Uli Zappe <uli@zappe.de>
457 Nikolay Grigoriev <shadow@aanet.ru>
458 Peter Maydell <pmaydell@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
459 Steinar Haug <sthaug@nethelp.no>
460 Stefan Huelswitt <huels@iname.com>
461 Winston Edmond <wbe@psr.com>
462 Petter Gustad <petter@gustad.com>
463 G. Paul Ziemba <paul@treehouse.napa.ca.us>
464 Bernhard R. Erdmann <be@berdmann.de>
465 Briggs, John H <John.H.Briggs@team.telstra.com>
466 Carlo Fusco <messer_samvise@libero.it>
467 Gorka Olaizola <gorka@escomposlinux.org>
468 Niels Heinen <zillion@snosoft.com>
469 Jochen Schmitt <Jochen@herr-schmitt-de>
470 Andreas Metzler <ametzler@logic.univie.ac.at>
471
472
473CONTACT INFORMATION
474-------------------
475
476All comments, changes you had to make for specific systems, bug
477reports, bug fixes, etc. can be reported to:
478
479 @PACKAGE_BUGREPORT@
480
481There is also a mailing list available, as described before.
482
483Although not a requirement of the license terms, you are according
484to ancient news software tradition encouraged to send a postcard to
485the following address if you find the program useful:
486
487 Egil Kvaleberg
488 Husebybakken 14A
489 NO-0379 Oslo
490 Norway
491
492
493$Id: README.in,v 1.59.2.15 2003/01/22 13:15:25 egil Exp $
494