NAME

       innxbatch - send xbatched Usenet articles to a remote NNTP server

SYNOPSIS

       innxbatch [ -D ] [ -t timeout ] [ -T timeout ] [ -v ] host file ...

DESCRIPTION

       Innxbatch  connects  to  the  NNTP  server at the specified host and sends it the specified xbatch files,
       using the XBATCH extension to the NNTP protocol. It is normally invoked by a script run  out  of  cron(8)
       that uses shlock(1) to lock the host name, followed by a ctlinnd(8) command to flush the batchfile.

       Innxbatch  normally blocks until the connection is made.  To specify a timeout on how long to try to make
       the connection, use the ``-t'' flag.
       To specify the total amount of time that should be allowed for article transfers, use the ``-T'' flag.
       The default is to wait until an I/O error occurs, or all the  articles  have  been  transferred.  If  the
       ``-T''  flag is used, the time is checked just before an article is started; it will not abort a transfer
       that is in progress. Both values are measured in seconds.

       Each fileis removed after it has been successfully transferred.

       If a communication error such as a write(2) failure, or  an  unexpected  reply  from  the  remote  server
       occurs, innxbatch will stop sending and leave all remaining files untouched for later retry.

       Upon  exit,  innxbatch  reports  transfer  and CPU usage statistics via syslog(3).  If the ``-v'' flag is
       used, they will also be printed on the standard output.

       Use the ``-D'' flag to print debugging information on  standard  error.   This  will  show  the  protocol
       transactions between innxbatch and the NNTP server on the remote host.

       A   sample   newsfeeds(5)   entry  to  produce  appropriate  xbatch  files  (thanks  to  Karsten  Leipold
       <poldi@dfn.de>):

         nase\
           :*\
           :Tc,Wnb\
           :/usr/lib/news/bin/batcher \
              -p "(/bin/gzip > /var/spool/news/out.going/nase.\$\$)" \
              nase.do.main

       A sample script to invoke innxbatch(8) is:

         #!/bin/sh
         ##  SH script to send xbatches for a site, wrapped around innxbatch
         ##  Invocation:
         ##     sendxbatches.sh <sitename> <hostname> <xbatch file name> ...

         if [ $# -le 3 ]
         then
            echo "usage: $0 <sitename> <hostname> <xbatch file name>"
            exit 1
         fi

         ##  =()<  . @<_PATH_SHELLVARS>@>()=
         . /usr/lib/news/innshellvars

         site="$1"; host="$2"; shift; shift

         ctlinnd flush "$site" \
         && sleep 5 \
         && exec $NEWSBIN/innxbatch -v -D "$host" $*

HISTORY

       Written by Stefan Petri <petri@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de>, modelled after innxmit(8) and the XBATCH patch  for  the
       nntp reference implementation.

SEE ALSO

       innxmit(8), nntpsend(8), ctlinnd(8), innd(8), newsfeeds(5), shlock(1).

                                                                                                    INNXBATCH(8)