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NAME

       filechan - file-writing backend for InterNetNews

SYNOPSIS

       filechan [ -d directory ] [ -f num_fields ] [ -m mapfile ] [ -p pidfile
       ]

DESCRIPTION

       Filechan reads lines from standard input and copies certain  fields  in
       each  line  into files named by other fields within the line.  Filechan
       is intended to be called by innd(8) as a channel feed.  (It  is  not  a
       full  exploder  and  does  not  accept commands; see newsfeeds(5) for a
       description  of  the  difference,  and  buffchan(8)  for  an   exploder
       program.)

       Filechan  input  is  interpreted  as  a  sequence  of lines.  Each line
       contains a fixed number of  initial  fields,  followed  by  a  variable
       number  of  filename  fields.   All  fields  in a line are separated by
       whitespace.  The default number of initial fields is one.

       For each line of input, filechan writes the initial  fields,  separated
       by  whitespace and followed by a newline, to each of the files named in
       the filename fields.  When writing to a  file,  filechan  opens  it  in
       append  mode  and tries to lock it and change the ownership to the user
       and group who owns the directory where the file is being written.

       Because the time window  in  which  a  file  is  open  is  very  small,
       complicated  flushing  and  locking  protocols  are not needed; a mv(1)
       followed by a sleep(1) for a couple of seconds is sufficient.

OPTIONS

       -f num_fields
              The ‘‘-f’’ flag may be used to specify  a  different  number  of
              initial fields.

       -d directory
              By  default,  filechan  writes  its  output  into  the directory
              <pathoutgoing in inn.conf>.  The ‘‘-d’’  flag  may  be  used  to
              specify   a  directory  the  program  should  change  to  before
              starting.

       -p pidfile
              If the ‘‘-p’’ flag is  used,  the  program  will  write  a  line
              containing its process ID (in text) to the specified file.

       -m mapfile
              A  map  file  may  be specified by using the ‘‘-m’’ flag.  Blank
              lines and lines starting with a number sign (‘‘#’’) are ignored.
              All other lines should have two host names separated by a colon.
              The first field is the name that may appear in the input stream;
              the  second field names the file to be used when the name in the
              first field appears.  For example, the following map file may be
              used  to  map  the  short names used in the example below to the
              full domain names:

              # This is a comment
              uunet:news.uu.net
              foo:foo.com
              munnari:munnari.oz.au

EXAMPLES

       If filechan is invoked with ‘‘-f 2’’ and given the following input:

              news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au> foo uunet
              news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com> uunet munnari
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com> foo uunet munnari

       Then the file foo will have these lines:

              news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au>
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       the file munnari will have these lines:

              news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com>
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

       and the file uunet will have these lines:

              news/software/b/132 <1643@munnari.oz.au>
              news/software/b/133 <102060@litchi.foo.com>
              comp/sources/unix/2002 <999@news.foo.com>

HISTORY

       Written by Robert Elz <kre@munnari.oz.au>, flags  added  by  Rich  $alz
       <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>.  This is revision 5909, dated 2002-12-03.

SEE ALSO

       buffchan(8), inn.conf(5), innd(8), newsfeeds(5).