NEWSMAINT(8)               UNIX System V(7 Jan 1991)               NEWSMAINT(8)


NAME
      newshist - extract history line for news article(s)
      newsdaily - maintain news log files and report problems
      newswatch - keep an eye on news system for difficulties
      newsboot - clean up news debris on reboot
      locknews - lock news system for manual tinkering
      addgroup, delgroup - add and delete newsgroups, locally only
      adddirs - make any missing directories for active newsgroups
      addfeed - add a news feed
      act.to.times - create active.times file for news readers
      histfrom, newsfrom - list news arriving over specific time range
      addmissing - add missing news articles to history file

SYNOPSIS
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/newshist msgid ...
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/newsdaily [ guru ... ]
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/newswatch [ guru ... ]
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/newsboot
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/locknews
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/addgroup group {y|n|m|x|=realgroup}
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/delgroup group
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/adddirs
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/addfeed [ -L ] site groups
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/act.to.times activefile
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/histfrom startdate [ enddate ]
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/newsfrom startdate [ enddate ]
      /usr/dell/cnews/newsbin/maint/addmissing

DESCRIPTION
      These programs are utilities useful in maintaining a C News system and
      diagnosing problems in it.

      Newshist prints the history line for each article identified by a msgid.

      Newsdaily performs minor maintenance chores that typically should be done
      once a day for the news system:  saving copies of log files and
      truncating them, reporting logged errors, checking for anomalies
      suggesting something is wrong, and cleaning out leftover files.
      Newsdaily saves one generation of old log files and three generations of
      old errlog and batchlog files.  It reports problems to the named gurus
      (default:  `usenet').

      Newswatch looks for indications of news problems on a shorter time scale
      than those reported by newsdaily, notably strangely-persistent lock files
      that may indicate a news-system failure.  It typically should be run a
      few times a day.

      Newsboot should be run from /etc/rc or the system's equivalent on reboot.
      It cleans up files that the news system might have left lying about if
      the system crashed while news was being processed, notably old lock
      files.



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      Locknews locks the news system, starts up a shell for the user, and waits
      around to unlock the news system when that shell terminates.  This
      simplifies manual maintenance.

      Addgroup and delgroup respectively add a newsgroup (with a specified
      flags field for the active file, normally `y' [see news(5)]) and delete a
      newsgroup manually, with proper locking.  The effect is purely local; no
      control message (to propagate the change to other machines) is sent.

      Adddirs sweeps through the active file checking that directories exist
      for all newsgroups.  (Relaynews will create directories as needed, but
      some user-interface software gets upset if a newsgroup exists but its
      directory does not.)  This is mostly useful when adding groups in bulk,
      based on another site's active file.

      Addfeed adds a line to the sys file specifying that the site should be
      fed the groups, and creates a suitable outbound-batching directory.  If
      the -L option is given, the L flag is included to restrict the feed to
      locally-generated articles only.  If groups does not include a
      distribution list (separated from the newsgroups by a `/'), the default
      distribution list `/all' is appended.  If groups is of the form =name,
      this specifies the same groups as those fed to site `name', with the
      exception that `to.name' is rewritten to `to.site'.

      Act.to.times emits (on standard output) a new active.times file (see
      active.times(5)) based on the contents of activefile, which should
      normally be /usr/dell/cnews/lib/active.

      Histfrom emits (on standard output) all history lines for unexpired
      articles arriving between startdate and enddate.  The dates must be
      acceptable to getdate (see newsaux(8)).  The default enddate is ``now''.

      Newsfrom runs histfrom and processes its output to produce a list of
      absolute pathnames of articles arriving between startdate and enddate
      (default ``now'').

      Addmissing scans the history file and the news-article tree to find
      articles that are not in the history file, and adds them to the file,
      rebuilding the dbz database to match.

FILES
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/historyhistory file
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/history.pagdbz database for history file
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/history.dirdbz database for history file
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/log current news log
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/log.oprevious news log
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/errlogcurrent news-error log
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/errlog.o*old news-error logs
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/batchlogcurrent news-batcher log
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/batchlog.o*old news-batcher logs
      /var/spool/news/in.cominginput-spooling area
      /var/spool/news/out.goingoutput-batching area


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NEWSMAINT(8)               UNIX System V(7 Jan 1991)               NEWSMAINT(8)


      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/watchtimelast time newswatch was run
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/activelist of current newsgroups
      /usr/dell/cnews/lib/active.oldbackup copy created by addgroup and delgroup

SEE ALSO
      df(1), uucp(1), ls(1), ctime(3), getdate(3), hostname(1), grep(1),
      news(5), expire(8), newsbatch(8), rnews(8), newsaux(8)

DIAGNOSTICS
      Locknews complains and exits if it is unable to lock the news system;
      this is typically a matter of either inadequate permissions or news
      activity already in progress.

      Addfeed looks for a /default/ line or a line for site in the batchparms
      file, and if none is found, warns the user to create one.

      Addmissing complains and exits if it is unable to lock the news system,
      if expire appears to be running, or if there is not enough space for a
      temporary copy of the history file and database.  It also notes the
      presence of articles which did not have intelligible headers (which are
      placed into history with an entry specifying immediate expiry).

HISTORY
      Written at U of Toronto by Henry Spencer and Geoff Collyer.

BUGS
      Locknews is a bit crude.

      Delgroup does not remove files or directories from /var/spool/news,
      although it prints a reminder to do so.

      The =name form of addfeed cannot cope with continued sys lines.

      Addfeed assumes that attention to the batchparms file suffices to get
      batching going for a new feed, which is naive if you are running
      sendbatches selectively, i.e. with arguments.

      Addmissing balks at dealing with articles which are already in history
      but with an incomplete list of pathnames.

      Various nuisances can result if the maintenance utilities are run as root
      rather than as the owner of the news database.  It's difficult to defend
      against this.











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