rnews - receive news from a UUCP connection


SYNOPSIS

       rnews  [  -h  host ] [ -N ] [ -P port ] [ -r remote ] [ -S
       remote ] [ -U ] [ -v ] [ input ]


DESCRIPTION

       Rnews reads messages typically queued by a  UUCP  newsfeed
       and sends them to the InterNetNews server (either ``local­
       host'',   or   the   value   defined   by   the   variable
       <nnrpdposthost in inn.conf>.

       The  message  is  read  from  the specified input file, or
       standard input if no input is named.

       When sent over UUCP, Usenet articles are typically  joined
       in  a  single  batch to reduce the UUCP overhead.  Batches
       can also be compressed, to reduce the communication  time.
       If a message does not start with a number sign (``#'') and
       an exclamation point, then the entire input is taken as  a
       single news article.  If it does start with with those two
       characters, then the first line is read and interpreted as
       a batch command.

       If  the command is ``#! rnews nnn'' where nnn is a number,
       then the next nnn bytes (starting with the next line)  are
       read as a news article.

       If  the  command is ``#! cunbatch'' then the rest of input
       is fed to the compress(1) program with the ``-d'' flag  to
       uncompress  it,  and  the  output  of this pipe is read as
       rnews's input.  This is for  historical  compatibility  --
       there  is  no  program named cunbatch.  A compressed batch
       will start with a ``#! cunbatch''  line,  then  contain  a
       series  of  articles  separated by ``#! rnews nnn'' lines.
       If <DO_RNEWSPROGS in include/config.h> is defined and  the
       command  is any other word, then rnews will try to execute
       a   program   with   that   name    in    the    directory
       <pathbin in inn.conf>/bin/rnews.libexec.

       The  batch  will be fed into the program's standard input,
       and the standard output will be read back  as  input  into
       rnews.   If  <DO_RNEWS_SAVE_BAD  in  include/config.h>  is
       defined and rnews detects any  problems  with  an  article
       such  as a missing header, or an unintelligible reply from
       the server, it will save a copy  of  the  article  in  the
       <pathincoming in inn.conf>/bad directory.


OPTIONS

       -h     If  the  ``-h'' flag is given, or failing that, the
              environment     variable     <_ENV_UUCPHOST      in
              include/paths.h>  (typically  UU_MACHINE)  is  set,
              then rnews will log the  Message-ID  and  host  via

              Logging will only be done if the value  is  not  an
              empty string.

       -N     Normally,  if  unpacking  the input fails it is re-
              spooled to <pathincoming in inn.conf>  for  another
              attempt  later.  If the ``-N'' flag is used then no
              such re-spooling is done and rnews exits with  sta­
              tus value ``9'' to indicate this.

       -P     If  the ``-P'' flag is used, then the articles will
              be sent to the specified port on the remote host.

       -r     If the ``-r'' flag is used, then the articles  will
              be  sent  to  the  named remote host instead of the
              default host.

       -S     ``-S'' flag is equivalent to ``-r'' flag.

       -U     If the server is  not  available,  the  message  is
              spooled  into a new file created in the <pathincom­
              ing in inn.conf> directory.  The ``-U'' flag may be
              used  to  send  all  spooled messages to the server
              once it becomes available again, and can be invoked
              regularly by cron(8).

       -v     If  the ``-v'' flag is used, it will print a notice
              of all errors on the  standard  error,  naming  the
              input  file  (if  known) and printing the first few
              characters of the input.  Errors are always  logged
              through syslog(3).


BUGS

       Rnews  cannot  process articles that have embedded \0's in
       them.


HISTORY

       Written by Rich $alz  <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>  for  InterNet­
       News.  This is revision 1.10.2.1, dated 2000/08/17.


SEE ALSO

       inn.conf(5), innd(8).


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