NAME
inews - send a Usenet article to the local news server for
distribution
SYNOPSIS
inews [ -h ] [ -D ] [ -O ] [ -R ] [ -S ] [ header_flags ] [
input ]
DESCRIPTION
Inews reads a Usenet news article (perhaps with headers)
from the named file or standard input if no file is given.
It adds some headers and performs some consistency checks.
If the article does not meet these checks (for example, too
much quoting of old articles, or posting to non-existent
newsgroups) then the article is rejected. If it passes the
checks, inews sends the article to the local news server as
specified in the inn.conf(5) file for distribution.
In the standard mode of operation, the input consists of the
article headers, a blank line, and the message body. For
compatibility with older software, the ``-h'' flag must be
used. If there are no headers in the message, then this
flag may be omitted.
Several headers may be specified on the command line, shown
in the synopsis above as header_flags. Each of these flags
takes a single parameter; if the value is more than one word
(for example, almost all Subject lines) then quotes must be
used to prevent the shell from splitting it into multiple
words. The options, and their equivalent header, are as
follows:
a Approved
c Control
d Distribution
e Expires
f From
w Followup-To
n Newsgroups
r Reply-To
t Subject
F References
o Organization
x Path prefix
The Path header is built according to the following rules.
If the ``-x'' flag is used, then its value will be the start
of the header. Any other host will see the site in the
header, and therefore not offer the article to that site.
If the ``pathhost'' configuration parameter is specified in
the inn.conf(5) file, then it will be added to the Path.
Otherwise, if the ``server'' configuration parameter is
specified, then the full domain name of the local host will
be added to the Path. The Path will always end not-for-mail.
The default Organization header will be provided if none is
present in the article or if the ``-o'' flag is not used.
To prevent adding the default, use the ``-O'' flag.
As a debugging aide, if the ``-D'' flag is used, the con-
sistency checks will be performed, and the article will be
sent to the standard output, rather then sent to the server.
For compatibility with C News, inews accepts, but ignores,
the ``-A'', ``-V'' and ``-W'' flags. The C News ``-N'' flag
is treated as the ``-D'' flag.
If a file named .signature exists in the user's home direc-
tory, inews will try to append it to the end of the article.
If the file cannot be read, or if it is too long (for exam-
ple, more than four lines or one standard I/O buffer), or if
some other problem occurs, then the article will not be
posted. To suppress this action use the ``-S'' flag.
If the ``-R'' flag is used then inews will reject any
attempts to post control messages.
If an unapproved posting is made to a moderated newsgroup,
inews will try to mail the article to the moderator for
posting. It uses the moderators(5) file to determine the
mailing address. If no address is found, it will use the
inn.conf file to determine a ``last-chance'' host to try.
If the NNTP server needs to authenticate the client, inews
will use the NNTPsendpassword(3) routine to authenticate
itself. In order to do this, the program will need read
access to the passwd.nntp(5) file. This is typically done
by having the file group-readable and making inews run set-
gid to that group.
Inews exits with a zero status if the article was succes-
fully posted or mailed, or with a non-zero status if the
article could not be delivered.
Since inews will spool its input if the server is unavail-
able, it is usually necessary to run rnews(1) with the ``-
U'' flag on a regular basis, usually out of cron(8).
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.
This is revision 1.25, dated 1993/03/18.
SEE ALSO
moderators(5), inn.conf(5). rnews(1).