NAME

       news.daily - Perform daily Usenet maintenance tasks

SYNOPSIS

       news.daily [delayrm] [expctl=path] [expdir=path] [expireover] [expireoverflags=args]
       [flags=args] [lowmark] [mailto=address] [noexpire] [noexpireover] [noexplog] [nologs]
       [nomail] [noprocbatch] [norenumber] [norm] [norotate] [nostat] [notdaily]
       [postexec=program] [procbatchdir=path] [tmpdir=path] [/path/to/a/program]

DESCRIPTION

       news.daily performs a number of important Usenet administrative functions.  This includes:

       • producing a status report with innstat;

       • removing old news articles (with expirerm if the delayrm keyword is specified);

       • purging the overview database with expireover (if the corresponding eponym keyword is
         specified or if enableoverview is true in inn.conf);

       • processing log files and rotating the archived log files with scanlogs;

       • processing innfeed dropped files with procbatch;

       • processing spooled messages with rnews invoked with the -U flag;

       • renumbering the active file with ctlinnd;

       • rebuilding the history file with expire;

       • removing any old socket files found in the pathrun directory;

       • collecting all the output and mailing it.

       Please note that this program should be run under the news administrator's account
       (usually "news"), not as root.  By default, news.daily performs all of its functions and
       mails the output to the news administrator, which is the user specified with
       --with-news-master at configure time (it is "usenet" by default).  You can also change
       this behaviour with the mailto keyword.

       By specifying keywords on the command line, it is possible to modify the functions
       performed, as well as change the arguments given to expire(8) and expireover(8).
       news.daily should be run once a day, typically out of cron(8).  Since it will slow the
       server down while it is running, it should be run during periods of low server usage, such
       as in the middle of the night.  To run it at 3am, for example, add the following entry to
       the news user's crontab file:

           0 3 * * * <pathbin in inn.conf>/news.daily expireover lowmark

       If you're using any non-CNFS storage methods, add the delayrm keyword to the above option
       list for news.daily.

       It may be run more often, but such invocations should at least use the norotate keyword
       (or perhaps the notdaily keyword) to prevent the log files from being processed and
       rotated too fast.  The shlock(1) program is used to prevent simultaneous executions.

       The program specified by the given path /path/to/a/program is executed just before any
       expiration is done.  A typical use is to specify an alternate expiration program and use
       the noexpire keyword.  Multiple programs may be specified; they will be invoked in order.

KEYWORDS

       The following keywords may be used:

       delayrm
           This uses the -z flag when invoking expire and expireover.  The names of articles to
           be removed are written to a temporary file, and then renamed after expiration by
           calling expirerm which in turn calls fastrm.

       expctl=path
           Specify the file to use as the expire.ctl file for expire.

       expdir=path
           By default, expire builds the new history file and database in the same directory as
           the current files.  Using this keyword specifies a different location to build the new
           files (by passing the -d flag to expire), which will then be moved to the right
           location when finished.

       expireover
           The expireover program is called after expiration to purge the overview database.  If
           no overview data is created, the expireover keyword is not needed.  This is the case
           when the server runs only for feeders (no reader).  By default, expireover is not
           called by news.daily unless enableoverview is set to true in inn.conf.

       expireoverflags=args
           If the expireover keyword is used, this keyword may be used to specify the flags to be
           passed to expireover.  If the delayrm keyword is used, then the default value is -z
           and the list of deleted files; otherwise, the default value is -s.

       flags=args
           By default, expire is invoked with argument -v1.  Using this keyword changes the
           arguments to those specified.  Be careful to use quotes if multiple arguments are
           needed.  This keyword has no effect if the noexpire keyword is used.

       lowmark
           If the lowmark keyword is used, "ctlinnd lowmark" is used for renumbering active.
           Normal "ctlinnd renumber" operation will take long time.  With the lowmark keyword,
           this will take less time.  If the lowmark keyword is used, the norenumber keyword is
           not needed since news.daily specifies it implicitly.

           If the lowmark keyword is given to news.daily, then the expireover keyword must also
           be given; otherwise, that kind of renumbering will not be taken into account.

       mailto=address
           By default, news.daily mails the report to the newsmaster address specified with
           --with-news-master at configure time.  The mailto keyword can specify a different
           address to which to mail the report.  Note that using this keyword has no effect if
           the nomail keyword is also specified.

       noexpire
           By default, expire is invoked to remove old news articles.  Using this keyword
           disables this function.

       noexpireover
           By default, expireover is invoked to remove old overview database if enableoverview is
           set in inn.conf.  Using this keyword disables this function.

       noexplog
           expire normally appends information to pathlog/expire.log (see newslog(5)).  Using
           this keyword causes the expire output to be handled as part of news.daily's output.
           It has no effect if the noexpire keyword is used.

       nologs
           After expiration, scanlogs is invoked to process the log files.  Using this keyword
           disables all log processing functions.

       nomail
           news.daily normally sends a mail message containing the results to the administrator.
           Using this keyword causes this message to be sent to stdout and stderr instead.
           Normally, all utilities invoked by the script have their stdout and stderr redirected
           into a file.  If the file is empty, no message is sent.

       noprocbatch
           This keyword disables the run of procbatch on innfeed dropped files generated in its
           spool directory.  These files contain a list of articles which were not correctly sent
           to peers.  By default, they will be processed and removed afterwards.

       norenumber
           This keyword disables the "ctlinnd renumber" operation.  Normally, the low water marks
           for all newsgroups are reset in the active file.

       norm
           By default, any ctlinnd socket that has not been modified for two days will be
           removed.  Using this keyword disables this function.

       norotate
           By default, log processing includes rotating and cleaning out log files.  Using this
           keyword disables the rotating and cleaning aspect of the log processing: the logs
           files are only scanned for information and no contents are altered.  This keyword has
           no effect if the nologs keyword is used.  The norotate keyword is passed on to
           scanlogs if it is invoked.

       nostat
           This keyword disables the status report generated by innstat.  Without this keyword,
           the status report is the first function performed, just prior to obtaining the
           news.daily lock.

       notdaily
           By default, news.daily expects to be run only once a day, and it does various things
           (like rotating logs) that normally should only be done on daily basis.  Use this
           keyword any extra times news.daily is run in the day and the normal log files
           processing (and rotation) will not be done.  This keyword implies nologs.

       postexec=program
           The program specified by the given path program is executed just after all expiration
           is done.  Multiple programs may be specified; they will be invoked in order.

       procbatchdir=path
           news.daily tries to find the backlog directory of innfeed in innfeed.conf.  In case
           several instances of innfeed are running or when its configuration file is not the
           default one, the procbatchdir keyword can be used to specify the path of the backlog
           directory.  This keyword can be used more than once in the command-line.

       tmpdir=path
           Overrides the pathtmp setting in inn.conf by setting the environment variable $TMPDIR
           to the specified path.  Various parts of the expire process, such as sort, will then
           use this path as the directory for temporary files.

HISTORY

       news.daily and this manual page were written by Landon Curt Noll <chongo@toad.com> and
       Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  It was converted to POD by Julien Elie.

SEE ALSO

       active(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), expire.ctl(5), expireover(8), expirerm(8), fastrm(1),
       inn.conf(5), innstat(8), newslog(5), procbatch(8), scanlogs(8), shlock(1).