Provided by: inn2_2.6.4-2build4_amd64 bug

NAME

       pullnews - Pull news from multiple news servers and feed it to another

SYNOPSIS

       pullnews [-BhnOqRx] [-a hashfeed] [-b fraction] [-c config] [-C width] [-d level] [-f
       fraction] [-F fakehop] [-g groups] [-G newsgroups] [-H headers] [-k checkpt] [-l logfile]
       [-m header_pats] [-M num] [-N timeout] [-p port] [-P hop_limit] [-Q level] [-r file] [-s
       to-server[:port]] [-S max-run] [-t retries] [-T connect-pause] [-w num] [-z article-pause]
       [-Z group-pause] [from-server ...]

REQUIREMENTS

       The "Net::NNTP" module must be installed.  This module is available as part of the libnet
       distribution and comes with recent versions of Perl.  For older versions of Perl, you can
       download it from <http://www.cpan.org/>.

DESCRIPTION

       pullnews reads a config file named pullnews.marks, and connects to the upstream servers
       given there as a reader client.  This file is looked for in pathdb when pullnews is run as
       the user set in runasuser in inn.conf (which is by default the "news" user); otherwise,
       this file is looked for in the running user's home directory.

       By default, pullnews connects to all servers listed in the configuration file, but you can
       limit pullnews to specific servers by listing them on the command line:  a whitespace-
       separated list of server names can be specified, like from-server for one of them.  For
       each server it connects to, it pulls over articles and feeds them to the destination
       server via the IHAVE or POST commands.  This means that the system pullnews is run on must
       have feeding access to the destination news server.

       pullnews is designed for very small sites that do not want to bother setting up
       traditional peering and is not meant for handling large feeds.

OPTIONS

       -a hashfeed
           This option is a deterministic way to control the flow of articles and to split a
           feed.  The hashfeed parameter must be in the form "value/mod" or "start-end/mod".  The
           Message-ID of each article is hashed using MD5, which results in a 128-bit hash.  The
           lowest 32 bits are then taken by default as the hashfeed value (which is an integer).
           If the hashfeed value modulus "mod" plus one equals "value" or is between "start" and
           "end", pullnews will feed the article.  All these numbers must be integers.

           For instance:

               pullnews -a 1/2      Feeds about 50% of all articles.
               pullnews -a 2/2      Feeds the other 50% of all articles.

           Another example:

               pullnews -a 1-3/10   Feeds about 30% of all articles.
               pullnews -a 4-5/10   Feeds about 20% of all articles.
               pullnews -a 6-10/10  Feeds about 50% of all articles.

           You can use an extended syntax of the form "value/mod:offset" or
           "start-end/mod:offset" (using an underscore "_" instead of a colon ":" is also
           recognized).  As MD5 generates a 128-bit return value, it is possible to specify from
           which byte-offset the 32-bit integer used by hashfeed starts.  The default value for
           "offset" is ":0" and thirteen overlapping values from ":0" to ":12" can be used.  Only
           up to four totally independent values exist:  ":0", ":4", ":8" and ":12".

           Therefore, it allows generating a second level of deterministic distribution.  Indeed,
           if pullnews feeds "1/2", it can go on splitting thanks to "1-3/9:4" for instance.  Up
           to four levels of deterministic distribution can be used.

           The algorithm is compatible with the one used by Diablo 5.1 and up.

       -b fraction
           Backtrack on server numbering reset.  Specify the proportion (0.0 to 1.0) of a group's
           articles to pull when the server's article number is less than our high for that
           group.  When fraction is 1.0, pull all the articles on a renumbered server.  The
           default is to do nothing.

       -B  Feed is header-only, that is to say pullnews only feeds the headers of the articles,
           plus one blank line.  It adds the Bytes: header field if the article does not already
           have one, and keeps the body only if the article is a control article.

       -c config
           Normally, the config file is stored in pullnews.marks in pathdb when pullnews is run
           as the news user, or otherwise in the running user's home directory.  If -c is given,
           config will be used as the config file instead.  This is useful if you're running
           pullnews as a system user on an automated basis out of cron or as an individual user,
           rather than the news user.

           See "CONFIG FILE" below for the format of this file.

       -C width
           Use width characters per line for the progress table.  The default value is 50.

       -d level
           Set the debugging level to the integer level; more debugging output will be logged as
           this increases.  The default value is 0.

       -f fraction
           This changes the proportion of articles to get from each group to fraction and should
           be in the range 0.0 to 1.0 (1.0 being the default).

       -F fakehop
           Prepend fakehop as a host to the Path: header of articles fed.

       -g groups
           Specify a collection of groups to get.  groups is a list of newsgroups separated by
           commas (only commas, no spaces).  Each group must be defined in the config file, and
           only the remote hosts that carry those groups will be contacted.  Note that this is a
           simple list of groups, not a wildmat expression, and wildcards are not supported.

       -G newsgroups
           Add the comma-separated list of groups newsgroups to each server in the configuration
           file (see also -g and -w).

       -h  Print a usage message and exit.

       -H headers
           Remove these named headers (colon-separated list) from fed articles.

       -k checkpt
           Checkpoint (save) the config file every checkpt articles (default is 0, that is to say
           at the end of the session).

       -l logfile
           Log progress/stats to logfile (default is "stdout").

       -m header_pats
           Feed an article based on header matching.  The argument is a number of whitespace-
           separated tuples (each tuple being a colon-separated header and regular expression).
           For instance:

               -m "Hdr1:regexp1 !Hdr2:regexp2 #Hdr3:regexp3 !#Hdr4:regexp4"

           specifies that the article will be passed only if the "Hdr1:" header matches "regexp1"
           and the "Hdr2:" header does not match "regexp2".  Besides, if the "Hdr3:" header
           matches "regexp3", that header is removed; and if the "Hdr4:" header does not match
           "regexp4", that header is removed.

       -M num
           Specify the maximum number of articles (per group) to process.  The default is to
           process all new articles.  See also -f.

       -n  Do nothing but read articles -- does not feed articles downstream, writes no rnews
           file, does not update the config file.

       -N timeout
           Specify the timeout length, as timeout seconds, when establishing an NNTP connection.

       -O  Use an optimized mode:  pullnews checks whether the article already exists on the
           downstream server, before downloading it.  It may help for huge articles or a slow
           link to upstream hosts.

       -p port
           Connect to the destination news server on a port other than the default of 119.  This
           option does not change the port used to connect to the source news servers.

       -P hop_limit
           Restrict feeding an article based on the number of hops it has already made.  Count
           the hops in the Path: header (hop_count), feeding the article only when hop_limit is
           "+num" and hop_count is more than num; or hop_limit is "-num" and hop_count is less
           than num.

       -q  Print out less status information while running.

       -Q level
           Set the quietness level ("-Q 2" is equivalent to "-q").  The higher this value, the
           less gets logged.  The default is 0.

       -r file
           Rather than feeding the downloaded articles to a destination server, instead create a
           batch file that can later be fed to a server using rnews.  See rnews(1) for more
           information about the batch file format.

       -R  Be a reader (use MODE READER and POST commands) to the downstream server.  The default
           is to use the IHAVE command.

       -s to-server[:port]
           Normally, pullnews will feed the articles it retrieves to the news server running on
           localhost.  To connect to a different host, specify a server with the -s flag.  You
           can also specify the port with this same flag or use -p.

       -S max-run
           Specify the maximum time max-run in seconds for pullnews to run.

       -t retries
           The maximum number (retries) of attempts to connect to a server (see also -T).  The
           default is 0.

       -T connect-pause
           Pause connect-pause seconds between connection retries (see also -t).  The default is
           1.

       -w num
           Set each group's high water mark (last received article number) to num.  If num is
           negative, calculate Current+num instead (i.e. get the last num articles).  Therefore,
           a num of 0 will re-get all articles on the server; whereas a num of "-0" will get no
           old articles, setting the water mark to Current (the most recent article on the
           server).

       -x  If the -x flag is used, an Xref: header is added to any article that lacks one.  It
           can be useful for instance if articles are fed to a news server which has xrefslave
           set in inn.conf.

       -z article-pause
           Sleep article-pause seconds between articles.  The default is 0.

       -Z group-pause
           Sleep group-pause seconds between groups.  The default is 0.

CONFIG FILE

       The config file for pullnews is divided into blocks, one block for each remote server to
       connect to.  A block begins with the host line (which must have no leading whitespace) and
       contains just the hostname of the remote server, optionally followed by authentication
       details (username and password for that server).  Note that authentication details can
       also be provided for the downstream server (a host line could be added for it in the
       configuration file, with no newsgroup to fetch).

       Following the host line should be one or more newsgroup lines which start with whitespace
       followed by the name of a newsgroup to retrieve.  Only one newsgroup should be listed on
       each line.

       pullnews will update the config file to include the time the group was last checked and
       the highest numbered article successfully retrieved and transferred to the destination
       server.  It uses this data to avoid doing duplicate work the next time it runs.

       The full syntax is:

           <host> [<username> <password>]
                   <group> [<time> <high>]
                   <group> [<time> <high>]

       where the <host> line must not have leading whitespace and the <group> lines must.

       A typical configuration file would be:

           # Format group date high
           data.pa.vix.com
                   rec.bicycles.racing 908086612 783
                   rec.humor.funny 908086613 18
                   comp.programming.threads
           nnrp.vix.com pull sekret
                   comp.std.lisp

       Note that an earlier run of pullnews has filled in details about the last article
       downloads from the two rec.* groups.  The two comp.* groups were just added by the user
       and have not yet been checked.

       The nnrp.vix.com server requires authentication, and pullnews will use the username "pull"
       and the password "sekret".

FILES

       pathbin/pullnews
           The Perl script itself used to pull news from upstream servers and feed it to another
           news server.

       pathdb/pullnews.marks or ~/pullnews.marks
           The default config file.  It is stored in pullnews.marks in pathdb when pullnews is
           run as the news user, or otherwise in the running user's home directory.

HISTORY

       pullnews was written by James Brister for INN.  The documentation was rewritten in POD by
       Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>.

       Geraint A. Edwards greatly improved pullnews, adding no more than 16 new recognized flags,
       fixing some bugs and integrating the backupfeed contrib script by Kai Henningsen, adding
       again 6 other flags.

       $Id: pullnews.pod 10283 2018-05-14 12:43:05Z iulius $

SEE ALSO

       incoming.conf(5), rnews(1).