Man Linux: Main Page and Category List

NAME

       rpost - post an article to an NNTP news server

SYNOPSIS

       rpost  [  hostname  ]  [  @filename  ]  [  -s | -S filename ] [ -e | -E
       filename ] [ -b batchfile ] [ -r rnews_file rnews_path ] [ -p prefix  ]
       [ -Q ] [ -d ] [ -U userid ] [ -P password ] [ -M ] [ -N port_number ] [
       -l phrase_file ] [ -D ] [ -T timeout ] [ -u ] [ -n ]

       [ -F perl_file ] [ -i ] [ -z ] [ -f  filter  $$o=<outfile>  filter_arg1
       ...  ]

DESCRIPTION

       Rpost  will  post  one  or  more  articles,  specified by hostname.  If
       hostname is not specified, rpost  will  use  the  environment  variable
       NNTPSERVER.   The  hostname  may optionally include the port number, in
       the form Host:Port will be ignored.

Generic Options

       @filename

       This option tells rpost to read other options from a file  in  addition
       to the command line.

       -D  This  option  tells  rpost  to  log  various  debugging messages to
       "debug.suck", primarily for use by the developer.

       -e|-E filename

       These options will send  all  error  messages  (normally  displayed  on
       stderr),  to  an alternate file.  The lower case version, -e, will send
       the error messages to the compiled-in default defined in suck_config.h.
       The  default  is suck.errlog.  The upper case version, -E, requires the
       filename parameter.  All error messages will then be sent to this file.

       -i

       This option tells rpost to ignore the 201 (no posting allowed) from the
       welcoming message and to try  and  post  anyway.    Some  news  servers
       (inn-2.3.1)  send  201  no  posting  allowed  when  they  are using the
       AUTHINFO commands to verify permission to post.

       -l phrase_file

       This option tells rpost to load in an alternate phrase file, instead of
       using  the  built-in  messages.   This  allows  you to have rpost print
       phrases in another language, or to allow you to customize the  messages
       without  re-building.  See the "FOREIGN LANGUAGE PHRASES" in suck.1 for
       more details.

       -M

       This option tells rpost to send the "mode reader" command to the remote
       server.   If  you get an invalid command message from rpost immediately
       after the welcome announcement, then try this option.

       -n

       This option tells rpost to show the name of the file  as  it  is  being
       uploaded.

       -N port_number

       This  option  tells  rpost  to  use  an alternate NNRP port number when
       connecting to the host, instead of the default port number, 119.

       -s|-S filename

       These options will send all  status  messages  (normally  displayed  on
       stdout),  to  an alternate file.  The lower case version, -s, will send
       the  status  messages   to   the   compiled-in   default   defined   in
       suck_config.h.  The default is /dev/null, so no status messages will be
       displayed.   The  upper  case  version,  -S,  requires   the   filename
       parameter.  All status messages will then be sent to this file.

       -T  This  option  overrides  the compiled-in TIMEOUT value. This is how
       long rpost waits for data from the remote host before  timing  out  and
       aborting.

       -u   This  option  tells  rpost  to  send  the  AUTHINFO  USER  command
       immediately upon connect to the remote server, rather than wait  for  a
       request  for authorization.  You must supply the -U and -P options when
       you use this option.

       -U userid -P password

       These two options let you specify a userid and password, if  your  NNTP
       server requires them.

       -Q

       This  option  allows  you  to  specify  the userid and password via the
       environment variables "NNTP_USER" and "NNTP_PASS"  instead  of  on  the
       command  line.   This prevents a potential security issue where someone
       doing a ps command can see your login and password.

       -z This option tells rpost to use SSL to communicate  with  the  remote
       hosts, if SSL was compiled into rpost.

STDIN MODE

       rpost

       rpost hostname

       rpost reads one article from stdin and sends it to the NNTP server. The
       article must have a header of at least two  lines,  namely  Newsgroups:
       and  Subject:  and  a  body  (the  article). Header and body have to be
       separated by a newline.  Rpost does not change the article in any  way.

       Rpost  uses  the  POST  command  to  post  your  article, just like any
       standard newsreader.  This is handy when using SLIP and PPP, since most
       providers  do  not  allow  any  other  method to post articles (such as
       nntpsend or innxmit).

BATCH MODE

       rpost hostname -b batchfile -p prefix -d

       This batch mode allows you to give rpost a list of articles,  and  have
       them all posted.

       -b batchfile

       A  listing  of  the articles to be posted.  This parameter is REQUIRED.
       This file contains one article per line, with the line being  the  path
       to the file containing the article. For example:

              -b /usr/spool/news/out.going/pixi

       IF there are any problems uploading a specific article, a "failed" file
       will be created.  It will be called "batchfile".fail, and  contain  the
       line  from  this batchfile for the article(s) that did not successfully
       upload.  This file can be used to re-run the  failed  messages  through
       rpost.   NOTE:  duplicate  articles are NOT considered an error for the
       fail file.

       -d

       If the upload of articles is successful, this option will  cause  rpost
       to
        delete the batchfile named in the -b option.

       -p prefix

       If  the  batchfile  does  not contain a full path, but rather a partial
       path, this parameter must be specified.  This is useful when the  batch
       file  is generated by another program.  For example, Inn lists the path
       in the out.going file relative to its base  directory  /usr/spool/news.
       In that case just use:

               -p /usr/spool/news

RNEWS MODE

       rpost hostname -r rnews_file rnews_path

       This  option  allows  you  to  use rnews generated file(s) to post.  It
       requires two parameters.

       rnews_file - this is the base name for the rnews files.   If  you  have
       your  rnews  file(s)  called  batch1,  batch2, etc., then this argument
       would be "batch".

       rnews_path - this is the path to the location of the rnews files.
              -r batch /usr/tmp/rnews

       -d

       If the upload of all the articles  from  any  of  the  rnews  files  is
       successful, then this option will cause rpost to delete that particular
       rnews file.

FILTER MODES

       -f filter $$o=<outfile> filter_arg1 filter_arg2 ...

       In many cases, each article must be massaged  before  the  remote  NNTP
       will  accept  it.   This  option,  and  the embedded perl filter option
       below, lets you do that.  These filters do not work in STDIN mode,  but
       in  the batch and rnews modes from above.  Note that the -f .... option
       must be the LAST option, as everything that follows it is passed to the
       filter,  except  as  noted  below.  There are three required parameters
       with this:

       $$o=<outfile>  - <outfile> is the name of the  file  produced  by  your
       filter  that  will get uploaded to the remote NNTP server.  THIS IS NOT
       passed to your filter program.  This can be specified anywhere  on  the
       command  line  AFTER  the  -f filter argument, either before the filter
       name, or after it.

       filter - name of the program to call.  Whatever follows filter,  EXCEPT
       for the $$o, are arguments passed to the filter.

       arg1  -  The  first  argument  to  your filter program/script.  It most
       likely will be $$i, which rpost fills in with the name of  the  article
       that needs to be cleaned up.

       arg2 ... - any additional args needed can be specified.

       Let’s clarify this a bit with an example.  Some NNTP servers don’t like
       to receive articles with the NNTP-Posting-Host  filled  in.   Create  a
       short shell script to delete this from a file:


       -myscr--------------------------------------------
       #!/bin/sh

       sed -e "/^NNTP-Posting-Host/d" $1 > $2


       -end myscr----------------------------------------
       Then call rpost like this:
              rpost   localhost  -b  /usr/spool/news/out.going/pixi  -f  myscr
              \$\$o=/tmp/FILTERED_MSG \$\$i /tmp/FILTERED_MSG

       Then, before each article is uploaded, myscr is called like such:
              myscr infilename /tmp/FILTERED_MSG

       After myscr has finished, rpost uploads the cleaned up article,  stored
       in /tmp/FILTERED_MSG, to the remote NNTP server.

NOTE:

       The  $$o  and  $$i  have to be escaped, using either the backslashes as
       above, or with single quotes, to  prevent  the  shell  from  trying  to
       interpret  these  as  variables.  Failure to escape them will result in
       rpost not working!

       -F perlfilter

       This option allows you to use an embedded perl filter  to  filter  your
       articles.  In order to use this, you must edit the Makefile, and define
       the various PERL_ options.  It has a couple of advantages over  the  -f
       option  above.   Because  it  is  embedded perl, there are no forks and
       execls() done, so it should be faster.  Also, you don’t need  to  worry
       about the arguments to the program and escaping $$, etc as above.

       Rpost  will,  when it starts up, load in the perlfilter file designated
       and parse it for syntax errors.  Then, for each article to be uploaded,
       rpost   will   call  the  subroutine  "perl_rpost",  contained  in  the
       perlfilter  file.   See  sample/put.news.pl  for  a  complete   working
       example.   There  are  three  key  points  you need to be aware of when
       creating your filter.

              1.  The  perlfilter  file  must  contain   the   line   "package
              Embed::Persistant;",  so  that  variables in the perlfilter file
              don’t clash with rpost variables, and  the  subroutine  must  be
              called  "perl_rpost".   This  can  be  changed  by  editting the
              PERL_RPOST_SUB define in suck_config.h.

              2. The perl_rpost subroutine receives the input file name as its
              sole  argument, and must return the full path to the location of
              the  filtered  article  as  a  single  scalar   string   (return
              $outfile).

              3.   The  subroutine  must  explicitly  close  the  output  file
              (containing the filtered argument) before it returns.   This  is
              because  perl  will  only  do  an  automatic  close upon program
              completion (in our case when rpost  exits),  or  when  the  file
              handle  is  reused (the next time the subroutine is called).  If
              the close is not done, then more than likely, a 0 byte file will
              exist  when  rpost  tries  to  post the article, and errors will
              result.

WARNING:

       Be very careful with what the filter program deletes from the  article.
       Deleting the wrong line can have bad effects later on.  For example, do
       not delete the MSG-ID line, as this could cause a single message to  be
       posted many times, depending on the configuration of both the local and
       remote newserver.

RPOST ARGUMENT FILE

       If you specify @filename on the command  line,  rpost  will  read  from
       filename and parse it for any arguments that you wish to pass to rpost.
       You specify the same arguments in this file as you do  on  the  command
       line.   The arguments can be on one line, or spread out among more than
       one line.  You may also use comments.  Comments begin with ’#’  and  go
       to the end of a line.  All command line arguments override arguments in
       the file.  One advantage to using the file instead of the command line,
       is that you don’t have to escape any special characters, such as $.

              # Sample Argument file
              -b batch # batch file option
              -M   # use mode reader option

EXIT VALUES

       Rpost returns the following exit values:

              0 = success
              1 = error posting an article
              2 = unable to do NNTP authorization with the remote server.
              3  = unexpected answer to command when doing NNTP authorization.
              -1 = other fatal error.

SEE ALSO

       suck(1), testhost(1), lpost(1).