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).


Man(1) output converted with man2html