NAME
news.daily - Perform daily Usenet maintenance tasks
SYNOPSIS
news.daily [delayrm] [expctl=path] [expdir=path] [expireover]
[expireoverflags=args] [flags=args] [lowmark] [mailto=address]
[noexpire] [noexpireover] [noexplog] [nologs] [nomail] [noprocbatch]
[norenumber] [norm] [norotate] [nostat] [notdaily] [postexec=program]
[procbatchdir=path] [tmpdir=path] [/path/to/a/program]
DESCRIPTION
news.daily performs a number of important Usenet administrative
functions. This includes:
· producing a status report with innstat;
· removing old news articles (with expirerm if the delayrm keyword is
specified);
· purging the overview database with expireover if the corresponding
eponym keyword is specified;
· processing log files and rotating the archived log files with
scanlogs;
· processing innfeed dropped files with procbatch;
· renumbering the active file with ctlinnd;
· rebuilding the history file with expire;
· removing any old socket files found in the pathrun directory;
· collecting all the output and mailing it.
Please note that this program should be run under the news
administrator’s account (usually "news"), not as root. By default,
news.daily performs all of its functions and mails the output to the
news administrator, which is the user specified with --with-news-master
at configure time (it is "usenet" by default). You can also change
this behaviour with the mailto keyword.
By specifying keywords on the command line, it is possible to modify
the functions performed, as well as change the arguments given to
expire(8) and expireover(8). news.daily should be run once a day,
typically out of cron(8). Since it will slow the server down while it
is running, it should be run during periods of low server usage, such
as in the middle of the night. To run it at 3am, for example, add the
following entry to the news user’s crontab file:
0 3 * * * <pathbin in inn.conf>/news.daily expireover lowmark
If you’re using any non-CNFS storage methods, add the delayrm keyword
to the above option list for news.daily.
It may be run more often, but such invocations should at least use the
norotate keyword (or perhaps the notdaily keyword) to prevent the log
files from being processed and rotated too fast. The shlock(1) program
is used to prevent simultaneous executions.
The program specified by the given path /path/to/a/program is executed
just before any expiration is done. A typical use is to specify an
alternate expiration program and use the noexpire keyword. Multiple
programs may be specified; they will be invoked in order.
KEYWORDS
The following keywords may be used:
delayrm
This uses the -z flag when invoking expire and expireover. The
names of articles to be removed are written to a temporary file,
and then renamed after expiration by calling expirerm which in turn
calls fastrm.
expctl=path
Specify the file to use as the expire.ctl file for expire.
expdir=path
By default, expire builds the new history file and database in the
same directory as the current files. Using this keyword specifies
a different location to build the new files (by passing the -d flag
to expire), which will then be moved to the right location when
finished.
expireover
The expireover program is called after expiration to purge the
overview database. If no overview data is created, the expireover
keyword is not needed. This is the case when the server runs only
for feeders (no reader). By default, expireover is not called by
news.daily.
expireoverflags=args
If the expireover keyword is used, this keyword may be used to
specify the flags to be passed to expireover. If the delayrm
keyword is used, then the default value is -z and the list of
deleted files; otherwise, the default value is -s.
flags=args
By default, expire is invoked with argument -v1. Using this
keyword changes the arguments to those specified. Be careful to
use quotes if multiple arguments are needed. This keyword has no
effect if the noexpire keyword is used.
lowmark
If the lowmark keyword is used, "ctlinnd lowmark" is used for
renumbering active. Normal "ctlinnd renumber" operation will take
long time. With the lowmark keyword, this will take less time. If
the lowmark keyword is used, the norenumber keyword is not needed
since news.daily specifies it implicitly.
mailto=address
By default, news.daily mails the report to the newsmaster address
specified with --with-news-master at configure time. The mailto
keyword can specify a different address to which to mail the
report. Note that using this keyword has no effect if the nomail
keyword is also specified.
noexpire
By default, expire is invoked to remove old news articles. Using
this keyword disables this function.
noexpireover
By default, expireover is invoked to remove old overview database
if enableoverview is set in inn.conf. Using this keyword disables
this function.
noexplog
expire normally appends information to pathlog/expire.log (see
newslog(5)). Using this keyword causes the expire output to be
handled as part of news.daily’s output. It has no effect if the
noexpire keyword is used.
nologs
After expiration, scanlogs is invoked to process the log files.
Using this keyword disables all log processing functions.
nomail
news.daily normally sends a mail message containing the results to
the administrator. Using this keyword causes this message to be
sent to stdout and stderr instead. Normally, all utilities invoked
by the script have their stdout and stderr redirected into a file.
If the file is empty, no message is sent.
noprocbatch
This keyword disables the run of procbatch on innfeed dropped files
generated in its spool directory. These files contain a list of
articles which were not correctly sent to peers. By default, they
will be processed and removed afterwards.
norenumber
This keyword disables the "ctlinnd renumber" operation. Normally,
the low water marks for all newsgroups are reset in the active
file.
norm
By default, any ctlinnd socket that has not been modified for two
days will be removed. Using this keyword disables this function.
norotate
By default, log processing includes rotating and cleaning out log
files. Using this keyword disables the rotating and cleaning
aspect of the log processing: the logs files are only scanned for
information and no contents are altered. This keyword has no
effect if the nologs keyword is used. The norotate keyword is
passed on to scanlogs if it is invoked.
nostat
This keyword disables the status report generated by innstat.
Without this keyword, the status report is the first function
performed, just prior to obtaining the news.daily lock.
notdaily
By default, news.daily expects to be run only once a day, and it
does various things (like rotating logs) that normally should only
be done on daily basis. Use this keyword any extra times
news.daily is run in the day and the normal log files processing
(and rotation) will not be done. This keyword implies nologs.
postexec=program
The program specified by the given path program is executed just
after all expiration is done. Multiple programs may be specified;
they will be invoked in order.
procbatchdir=path
news.daily tries to find the backlog directory of innfeed in
innfeed.conf. In case several instances of innfeed are running or
when its configuration file is not the default one, the
procbatchdir keyword can be used to specify the path of the backlog
directory. This keyword can be used more than once in the command-
line.
tmpdir=path
Overrides the pathtmp setting in inn.conf by setting the
environment variable $TMPDIR to the specified path. Various parts
of the expire process, such as sort, will then use this path as the
directory for temporary files.
HISTORY
news.daily and this manual page were written by Landon Curt Noll
<chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.
It was converted to POD by Julien Elie.
$Id: news.daily.pod 8989 2010-02-16 19:52:44Z iulius $
SEE ALSO
active(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), expire.ctl(5), expireover(8),
expirerm(8), fastrm(8), inn.conf(5), innstat(8), newslog(5),
scanlogs(8), shlock(1).