NAME
touch_newsgroup - force leafnode to continue reading low-traffic
newsgroups
SYNOPSIS
touch_newsgroup [-f groupsfile] [-h hostname] [-v] [newsgroups]
DESCRIPTION
touch_newsgroup is a Perl script which reads the last article in the
specified newsgroups on the specified using NNTP.
This prevents leafnode or similar news-servers from marking those
newsgroups as inactive because no-one is reading them.
Perl and the Net::NNTP module are required to use this program. On
Debian systems these are avalible in the perl5 and libnet-perl
packages.
OPTIONS
-f groupsfile
Read newsgroup names from groupsfile in addition to any
specified on command line. Use -f - to read from stdin.
-h hostname
Read newsgroups on host hostname (default 127.0.0.1)
-v Be verbose. Prints the number of the article it reads from each
newsgroup.
newsgroups
names of newsgroups to read. May be omitted if a groupsfile is
specified.
ENVIRONMENT
Requires Net::NNTP module (available in libnet from CPAN or the libnet-
perl package). On Debian systems, this program will by default be run
daily on the list of newsgroups specified in
/etc/news/leafnode/touch_groups if that file exists.
LIMITATIONS
Only one news-server is catered for, the IP address of which is hard-
wired into the script as $nntp_host.
BUGS
dies if it encounters any problems.
AUTHOR
Copyright 1999 Jim Nicholson <j.nicholson@computer.org>
SEE ALSO
leafnode(8)
18 June 1999 touch_newsgroup(1)