Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
NEWSOVERVIEW(5)		      File Formats Manual	       NEWSOVERVIEW(5)

NAME
       newsoverview - netnews overview files

SYNOPSIS
       /var/news/group/.overview

DESCRIPTION
       Each  newsgroup directory contains a file named `.overview', containing
       one-line	summaries of articles in that group.  Fields are separated  by
       tabs,  and  any	tabs or	newlines in the	original articles headers have
       been replaced with spaces.  The fields are, in order:

       1. article number (file name)

       2. subject

       3. author

       4. date

       5. message-id

       6. references

       7. byte count

       8. line count

       9...
	  optionally other headers, as arranged	locally	(none are supplied  by
	  the database maintenance software, as	shipped).

       The  line-count	and  references	 fields	may be empty.  If the optional
       other headers are present, they include their header keyword and	colon;
       if they are absent entirely, the	tab after  the	line-count  field  may
       also be absent.

       The file	is maintained in numerical order, by article number.

       At  the	time of	writing	(late 1992), the lines in an overview file are
       typically 150-300 characters long, and an overview file for a typically
       busy group is often 30,000 bytes	to 60,000 bytes	long, with notable ex-
       ceptions	exceeding 500,000 bytes.

EXAMPLES
       A few lines from	one overview file, with	 tabs  displayed  as  `|'  and
       lines continued after `\'.
	      8870|strange message id's: <something>QUIT|schmitz@scd.hp.com (John Schmitz)\
	      |18 Sep 1992 19:57:16 GMT|<19dcasINNce@hpscdf.scd.hp.com>||821|
	      8871|Re: BNF rule	for newsgroup names?|kris@tpki.toppoint.de (Kristian Koehntopp)\
	      |Fri, 18 Sep 1992	17:51:09 GMT|<1992Sep18.175109.21999@tpki.toppoint.de>\
	      |<43GQBM4D@cc.swarthmore.edu> <BuLB9y.7Dp@world.std.com>\
	       <BuLG5A.xH@cs.psu.edu> <339@blars.UUCP>|926||Supersedes:	<1234@foovax>

FILES
       /var/news/group/.overview

SEE ALSO
       newsdb(5)

HISTORY
       Written by Geoff	Collyer	as part	of the C News project.

BUGS
       The contents of the line-count field should not be believed and are re-
       ally pretty worthless yet popular.

       There  is  some	confusion  about  whether the order and	content	of the
       first eight fields is a local decision, or a standard.	It's  intended
       to  be  a standard; please do not mess with it.	All, repeat all, local
       variations should be done by adding the optional	fields at the end, and
       those fields must include their header keywords (and  colons)  to  make
       them self-identifying.

				  28 Aug 1994		       NEWSOVERVIEW(5)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=newsoverview&sektion=5&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.0.quarterly>

home | help