NAME

       control.ctl - specify handling of Usenet control messages

DESCRIPTION

       The  file  /etc/news/control.ctl  is  used  to  determine  what action is taken when a control message is
       received.  It is read by the parsecontrol script, which is called by all the control  scripts.   (For  an
       explanation of how the control scripts are invoked, see innd(8).)

       The  file  consists  of a series of lines; blank lines and lines beginning with a number sign (``#'') are
       ignored.  All other lines consist of four fields separated by a colon:
              message:from:newsgroups:action

       The first field is the name of the message for which this line is valid.  It should be either the name of
       the control message, or the word ``all'' to mean that it is valid for all messages.

       The second field is a shell-style pattern that matches the  email  address  of  the  person  posting  the
       message.  (The poster's address is first converted to lowercase.)  The matching is done using the shell's
       case statement; see sh (1) for details.

       If  the  control  message  is  ``newgroup'' or ``rmgroup'' then the third field specifies the shell-style
       pattern that must match the group being created or removed.  If the control message  is  of  a  different
       type, then this field is ignored.

       The  fourth  field specifies what action to take if this line is selected for the message.  The following
       actions are understood:

       doit   The action requested by the control message should be performed.  In most cases the control script
              will also send mail to usenet.

       doifarg
              If the control message has an argument, this is treated as a ``doit'' action.  If no argument  was
              given,  it  is  treated as a ``mail'' entry.  This is used in ``sendsys'' entries script so that a
              site can request its own newsfeeds(5) entry by posting a ``sendsys mysite'' article.  On the other
              hand, sendsys ``bombs'' ask that the entire newsfeeds file be sent to a forged  reply-to  address;
              by using ``doifarg'' such messages will not be processed automatically.

       doit=file
              The  action  is performed, but a log entry is written to the specified log file, file.  If file is
              the word ``mail'' then the record is mailed.   A  null  string  is  equivalent  to  /dev/null.   A
              pathname  that starts with a slash is taken as the absolute filename to use as the log.  All other
              pathnames are written to /var/log/news/file.log.  The log is written by writelog (see newslog(8)).

       drop   No action is taken; the message is ignored.

       log    A one-line log notice is sent  to  standard  error.   Innd  normally  directs  this  to  the  file
              /var/log/news/errlog.

       log=file
              A log entry is written to the specified log file, file, which is interpreted as described above.

       mail   A mail message is sent to the news administrator.

       Lines  are matched in order; the last match found in the file is the one that is used.  For example, with
       the following three lines:
              newgroup:*:*:drop
              newgroup:tale@*.uu.net:comp.*|misc.*|news.*|rec.*|sci.*|soc.*|talk.*:doit
              newgroup:kre@munnari.oz.au:aus.*:mail
       A newgroup coming from ``tale'' at a UUNET machine will be honored if it  is  in  the  mainstream  Usenet
       hierarchy.   If ``kre'' posts a newgroup message creating ``aus.foo'', then mail will be sent.  All other
       newgroup messages are ignored.

HISTORY

       Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  This is revision 1.8, dated 1996/09/06.

SEE ALSO

       innd(8), newsfeeds(5), scanlogs(8).

                                                                                                  CONTROL.CTL(5)