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DOCHECKGROUPS(8)	   InterNetNews Documentation		DOCHECKGROUPS(8)

NAME
     docheckgroups - Process checkgroups and output a list of changes

SYNOPSIS
     docheckgroups [-u] [include-pattern [exclude-pattern]]

DESCRIPTION
     docheckgroups is usually run by controlchan in order to process checkgroups
     control  messages.  It reads a list of newsgroups along with their descrip-
     tions on its standard input.  That list should be formatted like the  news-
     groups(5)	file: each line contains the name of a newsgroup followed by one
     or more tabulations and its description.

     docheckgroups will only check the presence of newsgroups  which  match  in-
     clude-pattern  (an egrep expression like "^comp\..*$" for newsgroups start-
     ing with "comp.") and which do not match exclude-pattern (also an egrep ex-
     pression) except for newsgroups mentioned in the pathetc/localgroups  file.
     This  file is also formatted like the newsgroups(5) file and should contain
     local newsgroups which would otherwise be mentioned for removal.  There  is
     no  need  to  put	local newsgroups of hierarchies for which no checkgroups
     control messages are sent, unless you manually  process  checkgroups  texts
     for  them.   Lines  beginning with a hash sign ("#") are not taken into ac-
     count in this file.  All the newsgroups and descriptions mentioned  in  pa-
     thetc/localgroups are appended to the processed checkgroups.

     If  exclude-pattern  is  given, include-pattern should also be given before
     (you can use an empty string ("") if you want  to	include  all  the  news-
     groups).	Be  that  as it may, docheckgroups will only check newsgroups in
     the top-level hierarchies which are present in the checkgroups.

     Then, docheckgroups checks the active and newsgroups files and displays  on
     its standard output a list of changes, if any.  It does not change anything
     by default; it only points out what should be changed:

     * Newsgroups  which  should be removed (they are in the active file but not
       in the checkgroups) and the relevant ctlinnd commands to achieve that;

     * Newsgroups which should be added (they are not in the active file but  in
       the checkgroups) and the relevant ctlinnd commands to achieve that;

     * Newsgroups which are incorrectly marked as moderated or unmoderated (they
       are both in the active file and the checkgroups but their status differs)
       and the relevant ctlinnd commands to fix that;

     * Descriptions which should be removed (they are in the newsgroups file but
       not in the checkgroups);

     * Descriptions  which  should be added (they are not in the newsgroups file
       but in the checkgroups).

     The output of docheckgroups can be fed into mod-active (it will  pause  the
     news  server,  update the active file accordingly, reload it and resume the
     work of the news server) or into the shell (commands for  ctlinnd	will  be
     processed one by one).  In order to update the newsgroups file, the -u flag
     must be given to docheckgroups.

     When  processing  a  checkgroups  manually, it is always advisable to first
     check the raw output of docheckgroups.  Then, if everything looks fine, use
     mod-active and the -u flag.

OPTIONS
     -u  If this flag is given, docheckgroups will update the  newsgroups  file:
	 it removes obsolete descriptions and adds new ones.  It also sorts this
	 file  alphabetically and improves its general format (see newsgroups(5)
	 for an explanation of the preferred number of tabulations).

EXAMPLES
     So as to better understand how docheckgroups works, here are examples  with
     the following active file:

	 a.first 0000000000 0000000001 y
	 a.second.announce 0000000000 0000000001 y
	 a.second.group 0000000000 0000000001 y
	 b.additional 0000000000 0000000001 y
	 b.third 0000000000 0000000001 y
	 c.fourth 0000000000 0000000001 y

     the following newsgroups file (using tabulations):

	 a.first	     First group.
	 a.second.announce   Announce group.
	 a.second.group      Second group.
	 b.third	     Third group.
	 c.fourth	     Fourth group.

     and the following localgroups file (using tabulations):

	 b.additional	     A local newsgroup I want to keep.

     The checkgroups we process is in the file test which contains:

	 a.first	     First group.
	 a.second.announce   Announce group. (Moderated)
	 a.second.group      Second group.
	 b.third	     Third group.
	 c.fourth	     Fourth group.

     If we run:

	 cat test | docheckgroups

     docheckgroups  will  output that a.second.announce is incorrectly marked as
     unmoderated and that its description is obsolete.	 Besides,  two	new  de-
     scriptions  will  be  mentioned  for addition (the new one for a.second.an-
     nounce and the missing description for b.additional -- it should indeed  be
     in  the  newsgroups  file	and  not only in localgroups).	Now that we have
     checked the output of docheckgroups and that we agree with the changes,  we
     run  it  with the -u flag to update the newsgroups file and we redirect the
     standard output to mod-active to update the active file:

	 cat test | docheckgroups -u | mod-active

     That's all!

     Now, suppose we run:

	 cat test | docheckgroups "^c\..*$"

     Nothing is output (indeed, everything is fine for the c.*	hierarchy).   It
     would have been similar if the test file had only contained the checkgroups
     for  the  c.*  hierarchy (docheckgroups would not have checked a.* and b.*,
     even if they had been in include-pattern).

     In order to check both a.* and c.*, you can run:

	 cat test | docheckgroups "^a\..*$|^c\..*$"

     And if you want to check a.* but not a.second.*, you can run:

	 cat test | docheckgroups "^a\..*$" "^a\.second\..*$"

     In our example,  docheckgroups  will  then  mention  a.second.announce  and
     a.second.group for removal since they are in the active file (the same goes
     for  their  descriptions).   Notwithstanding, if you do want to keep a.sec-
     ond.announce, just add this group to localgroups and docheckgroups will  no
     longer mention it for removal.

FILES
     pathbin/docheckgroups
	 The Shell script itself used to process checkgroups.

     pathetc/localgroups
	 The list of local newsgroups along with their descriptions.

HISTORY
     Documentation written by Julien Elie for InterNetNews.

SEE ALSO
     active(5), controlchan(8), ctlinnd(8), mod-active(8), newsgroups(5).

INN 2.8.0			   2021-10-21			DOCHECKGROUPS(8)

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