Ubuntu Manpage: inews - send a Usenet article to the local news server for distribution

NAME

       inews - send a Usenet article to the local news server for distribution

SYNOPSIS

       inews [ -h ] [ -D ] [ -O ] [ -R ] [ -S ] [ header_flags ] [ input ]

DESCRIPTION

       Inews  reads  a Usenet news article (perhaps with headers) from the named file or standard
       input if no file is given.  It adds some headers and performs some consistency checks.  If
       the  article does not meet these checks (for example, too much quoting of old articles, or
       posting to non-existent newsgroups) then the  article  is  rejected.   If  it  passes  the
       checks,  inews  sends the article to the local news server as specified in the inn.conf(5)
       file for distribution.

OPTIONS

-h In the standard mode of operation, the input consists of the article headers, a
blank line, and the message body. For compatibility with older software, the
``-h'' flag must be used. If there are no headers in the message, then this flag
may be omitted.

-O The default Organization header will be provided if none is present in the article
or if the ``-o'' flag is not used. To prevent adding the default, use the ``-O''
flag.

-D As a debugging aide, if the ``-D'' flag is used, the consistency checks will be
performed, and the article will be sent to the standard output, rather then sent to
the server.

-A -V -W
For compatibility with C News, inews accepts, but ignores, the ``-A'', ``-V'' and
``-W'' flags.

-N The C News ``-N'' flag is treated as the ``-D'' flag.

-S If a file named .signature exists in the user's home directory, inews will try to
append it to the end of the article. If the file cannot be read, or if it is too
long (for example, more than four lines or one standard I/O buffer), or if some
other problem occurs, then the article will not be posted. To suppress this action
use the ``-S'' flag.

-R If the ``-R'' flag is used then inews will reject any attempts to post control
messages.

header_flags
Several headers may be specified on the command line, shown in the synopsis above
as header_flags. Each of these flags takes a single parameter; if the value is
more than one word (for example, almost all Subject lines) then quotes must be used
to prevent the shell from splitting it into multiple words. The options, and their
equivalent header, are as follows:

a Approved
c Control
d Distribution
e Expires
f From
w Followup-To
n Newsgroups
r Reply-To
t Subject
F References
o Organization
x Path prefix

If the ``-x'' flag is used, then its value will be the start of the header. Any
other host will see the site in the header, and therefore not offer the article to
that site. The Path will always end not-for-mail.

NOTES

       If  an  unapproved  posting  is  made to a moderated newsgroup, inews will try to mail the
       article to the moderator for posting.   It  will  query  the  remote  news  server  for  a
       moderators  listing.  If  that  doesn't  succeed,  it  will  fallback  to  using the local
       moderators(5) file to determine the mailing address.  If no address is found, it will  use
       the inn.conf file to determine a ``last-chance'' host to try.

       If   the   NNTP   server   needs   to   authenticate   the  client,  inews  will  use  the
       NNTPsendpassword(3) routine to authenticate itself.  In order to do this, the program will
       need  read  access  to the passwd.nntp(5) file.  This is typically done by having the file
       group-readable and making inews run setgid to that group.

       Inews exits with a zero status if the article was succesfully posted or mailed, or with  a
       non-zero status if the article could not be delivered.

       Since  inews will spool its input if the server is unavailable, it is usually necessary to
       run rnews(1) with the ``-U'' flag on a regular basis, usually out of cron(8).

HISTORY