prunehistory - remove file names from Usenet history file
SYNOPSIS
prunehistory [ -f filename ] [ -p ]
DESCRIPTION
Prunehistory modifies the history(5) text file to
``remove'' a set of filenames from it. The filenames are
removed by overwriting them with spaces, so that the size
and position of any following entries does not change.
Prunehistory reads the standard input. The input is taken
as a set of lines. Blank lines and lines starting with a
number sign (``#'') are ignored. All other lines are
should consist of a Message-ID followed by zero or more
filenames.
The Message-ID is used as the dbz(3) key to get an offset
into the text file. If no filenames are mentioned on the
input line, then all filenames in the text are
``removed.'' If any filenames are mentioned, they are
converted into the history file notation. If they appear
in the line for the specified Message-ID then they are
removed.
Since innd(8) only appends to the text file, prunehistory
does not need to have any interaction with it.
OPTIONS
-p Prunehistory will normally complain about lines
that do not follow the correct format. If the
``-p'' flag is used, then the program will silently
print any invalid lines on its standard output.
(Blank lines and comment lines are also passed
through.) This can be useful when prunehistory is
used as a filter for other programs such as reap.
-f The default name of the history file is
<pathdb in inn.conf>/history; to specify a differ
ent name, use the ``-f'' flag.
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNet
News. This is revision 1.7, dated 1998/04/09.
SEE ALSO
dbz(3), history(5), inn.conf(5), innd(8).
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