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RNEWS(1)		  InterNetNews Documentation		      RNEWS(1)

NAME
       rnews - Inject individual articles and UUCP batches

SYNOPSIS
       rnews [-abdNUv] [-h host] [-P port] [-rS	server]	[file]

DESCRIPTION
       rnews injects either individual articles	or UUCP-style article batches
       into a local or remote news server.  It submits articles	via IHAVE and
       is suitable for injecting articles received from	other sources; local
       postings	should generally use inews(1) instead.	It is also used	to
       process spooled messages	created	by, for	example, nnrpd while innd is
       not available.

       If authentication credentials are present for the remote	server in the
       passwd.nntp file	in pathetc, then rnews will use	them to	authenticate.

       The message is read from	file if	given, spooled files (with the -U
       flag) or	standard input if no file is given.  Articles are sent to the
       server given in the -r or -S command line options if given, otherwise
       to the server set via nnrpdposthost in inn.conf,	otherwise to the local
       server at 127.0.0.1, and	finally	to the server set via server in
       inn.conf.

       When sent over UUCP, Usenet articles are	typically collected in a
       single batch to reduce the UUCP overhead.  Batches can also be
       compressed to reduce communication time.	 If the	input to rnews does
       not begin with the characters "#!", it is taken to be a single news
       article;	otherwise, the first line of the input is interpreted as a
       batch command.

       If the batch command is:

	   #! rnews <number>

       then the	next <number> bytes (starting with the next line) are read as
       a news article.	After that article is processed, the next line is
       again treated as	a batch	command.

       If the command is:

	   #! cunbatch

       then the	rest of	the input is fed to "gzip -d" to uncompress it,	and
       then the	resulting uncompressed output is re-read as if it were the
       original	input to rnews.	 A compressed batch should therefore start
       with this line and contain a batch of articles separated	by "#! rnews"
       lines and then compressed with compress(1).  (Batches compressed	with
       gzip(1) should instead use "gunbatch" as	the batch command; INN just
       uses gzip rather	than compress because it can handle compress-style
       compression but is more widely available, due to	old patent issues,
       than compress.)

       Otherwise, if the command is any	other word and the -a flag is not
       given, rnews will try to	execute	a program with that name, looking for
       it in the directory pathbin/rnews.libexec.  The rest of the batch will
       be fed to that program's	standard input,	and the	standard output	from
       the program will	be treated as if it were the original input to rnews.
       INN comes with three such standard batch	processors:

       bunbatch
	 It  invokes  bzip2  and  should  be  used for batches compressed with
	 bzip2.

       c7unbatch
	 It undoes an ASCII encoding to	recover	the original binary compressed
	 stream	and then decompresses it as explained above.

       gunbatch
	 It invokes gzip and should be used for	batches	compressed with	gzip.

OPTIONS
       -a  By  default,	 rnews	looks  for   additional	  unpackers   in   the
	   rnews.libexec sub-directory of pathbin (as set in inn.conf).	 If -a
	   is  given, no additional batch processor will be used; only "rnews"
	   and "cunbatch" will be recognized as	valid batch commands.

       -b  By default, rnews will  log	and  discard  any  articles  that  are
	   rejected by the server or cannot be parsed by rnews for some	reason
	   (such  as  a	 missing  header  field).   If	-b  is given, rejected
	   articles will also  be  backed  up  in  the	bad  sub-directory  of
	   pathincoming	(as set	in inn.conf).

       -d  If  -d  is  given, rnews will log via syslog	the message-ID and the
	   Path	header field body of each article rejected as a	 duplicate  by
	   the server.

       -h host
	   If  -h  is given, rnews will	log the	message	ID and host via	syslog
	   for each article that it offers to the server.   This  is  used  in
	   conjunction	with a UUCP feed to get	a log of the messages received
	   via that feed.  This	will also be done if the environment  variable
	   UU_MACHINE  is  set,	 but will only be done if host is not an empty
	   string.  (You can therefore turn off	 logging  even	if  UU_MACHINE
	   will	be set by passing the flag "-h ''" to rnews.)

       -N  Normally,  if  unpacking the	input batch fails, it is re-spooled to
	   pathincoming	for another attempt later.  If the -N flag  is	given,
	   no such re-spooling is done and rnews will instead exit with	status
	   9 if	unpacking fails.

       -P port
	   Use port as the server port to connect to rather than nnrpdpostport
	   (as	set  in	inn.conf).  Note that this value is only used if rnews
	   does	not connect to the local server	(in other words, when -r or -S
	   is given or nnrpdposthost is	set).

       -r server, -S server
	   -r and -S are synonymous.  If either	is  given,  articles  will  be
	   sent	 to server rather than using the local server, overriding also
	   the setting of nnrpdposthost	in inn.conf.

       -U  If the server is not	available, both	rnews  and  nnrpd  will	 spool
	   posts  to  new files	in the pathincoming directory (as specified in
	   inn.conf).  When rnews is invoked with the -U option, it scans that
	   directory and processes all	spooled	 messages  found  there	 whose
	   filenames  do  not  begin  with ".",	attempting to send them	to the
	   server again.  It's a good idea to run  this	 periodically  out  of
	   cron	 to  pick  up  any  articles  spooled  due to temporary	server
	   unavailability.

       -v  Enable verbose mode,	with more traces, notably logging  the	reason
	   why articles	are rejected by	the server.

BUGS
       rnews  cannot  process  articles	 that have embedded null characters in
       them.  (Neither can the rest of INN at present.)

HISTORY
       Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.   Rewritten
       in POD by Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>.

SEE ALSO
       bzip2(1),   compress(1),	  gzip(1),   inews(1),	inn.conf(5),  innd(8),
       nnrpd(8), passwd.nntp(5).

INN 2.8.0			  2024-02-11			      RNEWS(1)

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