motd.news - Message of the day information for feeders or readers
Two files, found in
pathetc, contain local information for news feeders
or news readers in a free-form format. The entire files are returned verbatim
to any client that issues the LIST MOTD command. This might be used for new
information, notification of upcoming downtime, or similar purposes.
These files are named
motd.innd (for news feeders) and
motd.nnrpd
(for news readers); they are used by
innd and
nnrpd,
respectively.
Make sure that these files are encoded in UTF-8. They should also be
"dot-stuffed", that is to say that a line beginning with a dot
should have that dot doubled.
Be aware that use of the LIST MOTD command is not widespread (though documented
in RFC 6048) and most news clients will never ask for this file.
If one or both of these files are missing, it is not an error. The server will
just send the client the appropriate response for an unmaintained
motd.innd or
motd.nnrpd file.
On a fresh INN install, samples for these files are installed in
pathetc;
you will therefore find in
motd.innd.sample and
motd.nnrpd.sample a few examples of messages that can be communicated
to news clients.
Rewritten in POD by Russ Allbery <
[email protected]> for InterNetNews.
inn.conf(5).