

RELAYNEWS(8)               Unix Programmer's Manual               RELAYNEWS(8)


NAME
     relaynews - store and forward netnews articles

SYNOPSIS
     relaynews [ -inrsu ] [ -d fhlmt ] [ -o days ] [ -x excluded-site ]

DESCRIPTION
     Relaynews installs locally and broadcasts (network)  news  articles  read
     from  its standard input.  Typically the articles will be in a batch (see
     news(5)), which must not be compressed (see compress(1)).   Articles  are
     usually   queued   for  transmission  to  one's  netnews  neighbours  via
     newsbatch(8) and thence via uux(1) or mail(1).

     -d  turns  on  debugging   of   filing,   headers,   locking,   matching,
     transmission.   -r  redirects  stdout and stderr to /usr/lib/news/log and
     /usr/lib/news/errlog.  -i redirects stdout only to /usr/lib/news/log.  -n
     enables  ``NNTP mode'' in which history entries are generated as articles
     are  rejected.   -s  makes  discarding  an  article  a  serious   matter,
     justifying a non-zero exit status (for the benefit of inews).  -u unlinks
     (removes) any filename arguments after successful processing and if their
     absolute  paths  are under /usr/spool/news/in.coming.  -o causes articles
     with dates (in Date: headers) more than days old to be  dropped  (usually
     to  stop accidentally-retransmitted old articles).  -x excludes excluded-
     site from the list of netnews neighbours to receive article(s).

     Control messages, recognised by their Control: headers (or  for  backward
     compatibility  ONLY  a  Newsgroups:  header containing a single newsgroup
     ending in .ctl), are filed under the control pseudo-group only,  but  are
     forwarded  as  usual,  by  examining  their Newsgroups: and Distribution:
     headers.  Note that posting to the control pseudo-group will not cause  a
     message  to  be  treated  as  a  control  message;  control is not a real
     newsgroup.

     An article which contains an Also-Control:  header  is  treated  normally
     except  that  the contents of the header are executed as if they were the
     contents of a Control: header.  Such an  article  is  a  form  of  hybrid
     message since it functions as an ordinary article yet also causes control
     functions to be executed.  The Supersedes: header is a special  case  and
     is rewritten internally only to Also-Control: cancel.

     Articles which contain no locally-known (to the active  file)  newsgroups
     yet  accepted  by  the local subscription list are filed exactly once, in
     the junk pseudo-group, and forwarded as usual.  If all newsgroups in  the
     article are refused by the local subscription list or are refused by an x
     in active file entries, then the article will be discarded and not  filed
     in junk.

     Locally-generated  articles  need  not  be   permitted   by   the   local
     subscription  list  but  are  otherwise  processed  normally; this is for
     backward compatibility and perhaps to keep the  local  subscription  list
     short by not requiring general and the like to be named.







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RELAYNEWS(8)               Unix Programmer's Manual               RELAYNEWS(8)


FILES
     /usr/spool/news         netnews article tree
     /usr/spool/news/comp/unix/wizards
                             example      newsgroup       directory       (for
                             comp.unix.wizards)
     /usr/spool/news/out.going/system/togo
                             default sys file F, f and I flags filename
     /usr/lib/news/sys       determines   who   receives   broadcast   netnews
                             articles, which ones, and how they are to be sent
                             articles
     /usr/lib/news/active    contains     locally-legal     newsgroups     and
                             (un)moderated flag
     /usr/lib/news/history   record of articles received
     /usr/lib/news/history.{dir,pag}
                             dbm(3) index into history
     /usr/lib/news/whoami    if present, contains  news  system's  site  name,
                             overriding any other host names
     /usr/lib/news/log       log of incoming articles
     /usr/lib/news/errlog    log of errors, should be empty
     /usr/lib/news/bin       system-specific directory of programs to override
                             /usr/lib/newsbin and its subdirectories
     /usr/lib/newsbin/ctl    directory  of  programs  to   implement   control
                             messages
     /usr/lib/newsbin/relay/relaynews
                             the lean, mean news-relayin' machine
     /usr/lib/newsbin/newsreply
                             generates a return address from article headers

SEE ALSO
     compress(1), mail(1), uux(1), dbm(3), news(5), newsbatch(8)
     ARPA Internet RFCs 1036 and 850

DIAGNOSTICS
     Usually found in /usr/lib/news/errlog.
     Relaynews's  exit  status  is  a  bit  vector   of   status   bits;   see
     news/include/news.h for the bit definitions.
     If  relaynews  cannot  establish  safe  standard  file  descriptors   and
     standardise  its  environment (notably PATH, SHELL and IFS), probably due
     to failure of malloc(3), it will  exit  with  status  of  1  and  without
     writing  any  complaints  on  standard  error  (errlog),  as  a  security
     precaution.

HISTORY
     Written by Geoff Collyer at the University of Toronto as part  of  the  C
     news project.

BUGS
     An article with a header that does not fit entirely in  a  static  buffer
     and  on a machine without real links (e.g. something like Eunice but on a
     PDP-11)  will  be  filed   incorrectly:    any   symbolic   links   under
     /usr/spool/news will point at a non-existent filename.

     A control message which cannot be filed in the control  pseudo-group  and
     which cannot be filed in the junk pseudo-group because junk is not in the
     active file will generate an error message which refers to the groups  in
     its Newsgroups: header instead of referring to the control pseudo-group.


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RELAYNEWS(8)               Unix Programmer's Manual               RELAYNEWS(8)


     Relaynews could run faster in some circumstances and would be simpler  if
     Control:  were  required  to  be  the  first  header,  if present, and if
     Newsgroups: were required to be the next.

     The whole control message and hybrid message  situation  is  a  festering
     bug.   Either  control  messages  should  be  eliminated, or all forms of
     backward  compatibility  should  be  dropped  (including   Control:   and
     Supersedes:)  and only Also-Control: should be supported.

     Use of the = active file flag can result in a cross-posted article  being
     filed  multiple times in the same group, though with the Xref: header set
     appropriately so that newsreaders should suppress showing  the  redundant
     links.













































C News                             17 July 1991                              3

