inews - send a Usenet article to the local news server for distribution
inews [
-h ] [
-D ] [
-O ] [
-R ] [
-S
] [
header_flags ] [
input ]
Inews reads a Usenet news article (perhaps with headers) from the named
file or standard input if no file is given. It adds some headers and performs
some consistency checks. If the article does not meet these checks (for
example, too much quoting of old articles, or posting to non-existent
newsgroups) then the article is rejected. If it passes the checks,
inews sends the article to the local news server as specified in the
inn.conf(5) file for distribution.
- -h
- In the standard mode of operation, the input consists of
the article headers, a blank line, and the message body. For compatibility
with older software, the `` -h'' flag must be used. If there are no
headers in the message, then this flag may be omitted.
- -O
- The default Organization header will be provided if none is
present in the article or if the `` -o'' flag is not used. To
prevent adding the default, use the `` -O'' flag.
- -D
- As a debugging aide, if the ``-D'' flag is used, the
consistency checks will be performed, and the article will be sent to the
standard output, rather then sent to the server.
- -A -V -W
- For compatibility with C News, inews accepts, but
ignores, the `` -A'', ``-V'' and ``-W'' flags.
- -N
- The C News ``-N'' flag is treated as the
``-D'' flag.
- -S
- If a file named .signature exists in the user's home
directory, inews will try to append it to the end of the article.
If the file cannot be read, or if it is too long (for example, more than
four lines or one standard I/O buffer), or if some other problem occurs,
then the article will not be posted. To suppress this action use the ``
-S'' flag.
- -R
- If the ``-R'' flag is used then inews will
reject any attempts to post control messages.
- header_flags
- Several headers may be specified on the command line, shown
in the synopsis above as header_flags. Each of these flags takes a
single parameter; if the value is more than one word (for example, almost
all Subject lines) then quotes must be used to prevent the shell from
splitting it into multiple words. The options, and their equivalent
header, are as follows:
a Approved
c Control
d Distribution
e Expires
f From
w Followup-To
n Newsgroups
r Reply-To
t Subject
F References
o Organization
x Path prefix
- If the ``-x'' flag is used, then its value will be
the start of the header. Any other host will see the site in the header,
and therefore not offer the article to that site. The Path will always end
not-for-mail.
If an unapproved posting is made to a moderated newsgroup,
inews will try
to mail the article to the moderator for posting. It will query the remote
news server for a moderators listing. If that doesn't succeed, it will
fallback to using the local
moderators(5) file to determine the mailing
address. If no address is found, it will use the
inn.conf file to
determine a ``last-chance'' host to try.
If the NNTP server needs to authenticate the client,
inews will use the
NNTPsendpassword(3) routine to authenticate itself. In order to do
this, the program will need read access to the
passwd.nntp(5) file.
This is typically done by having the file group-readable and making
inews run setgid to that group.
Inews exits with a zero status if the article was succesfully posted or
mailed, or with a non-zero status if the article could not be delivered.
Since
inews will spool its input if the server is unavailable, it is
usually necessary to run
rnews(1) with the ``-U'' flag on a regular
basis, usually out of
cron(8).
Written by Rich $alz <
[email protected]> for InterNetNews. This is
revision 1.27, dated 1996/10/29.
moderators(5),
inn.conf(5).
rnews(1).