NAME

       public-inbox-overview - an overview of public-inbox

DESCRIPTION

       public-inbox consists of many pieces which may be used independently or in conjunction of
       each other for:

       1.  Mirroring existing public-inboxes.

       2.  Mirroring mailing lists.

       3.  Hosting standalone inboxes.

   Mirroring existing public-inboxes
       Mirroring existing public-inboxes is the easiest way to get started.  Your mirror will
       remain dependent on the REMOTE_URL you are mirroring and you only need to use two new
       commands in addition to common git(1) commands.

       Instructions are different depending on whether the inbox is public-inbox-v1-format(5) or
       public-inbox-v2-format(5).  See the "Archives are clonable:" part of the WWW interface of
       a given inbox for cloning instructions specific to that inbox.  The instructions are
       roughly:

         # for v1 inboxes:
         git clone --mirror URL INBOX_DIR

         # for v2 inboxes (each epoch needs to be cloned):
         git clone --mirror URL/EPOCH INBOX_DIR/git/EPOCH.git

         # The following should create the necessary entry in
         # ~/.public-inbox/config, use "-V2" only for v2 inboxes:
         public-inbox-init [-V2] NAME INBOX_DIR MY_URL LIST_ADDRESS

         # Optional but strongly recommended for hosting HTTP
         # (and required for NNTP)
         # enable overview (requires DBD::SQLite) and, if Search::Xapian is
         # available, search:
         public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR

         # Periodically fetch the repo using git-fetch(1)
         # for v1 inboxes:
         git --git-dir=INBOX_DIR fetch

         # for v2 (in most cases, only the newest epoch needs to be fetched):
         git --git-dir=INBOX_DIR/git/EPOCH.git fetch

         # index new messages after fetching:
         public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR

       See "Serving public-inboxes" below for info on how to expose your mirror to other readers.

   Mirroring mailing lists
       Mirroring mailing lists may be done by any reader of a mailing list using
       public-inbox-watch(1).

               # This will create a new v2 inbox:
               public-inbox-init -V2 NAME INBOX_DIR MY_URL LIST_ADDRESS

       Then, see the public-inbox-watch(1) manual for configuring "watch", "watchheader",
       "listid" and the optional "spamcheck" and "watchspam" entries.

       You will need to leave public-inbox-watch(1) running to keep the mailbox up-to-date as
       messages are delivered to the mailing list.

       Running public-inbox-index(1) to create search indices is recommended.
       public-inbox-watch(1) will automatically maintain the indices if they were created by
       public-inbox-index(1)

               public-inbox-index INBOX_DIR

       Instead of using public-inbox-watch(1), using public-inbox-mda(1) with the "--no-precheck"
       option and relying on the "listid" directive in public-inbox-config(5) is also an option.

   Hosting standalone inboxes
       Using public-inbox-init(1) to initialize the inbox as in the other methods is recommended.
       See public-inbox-mda(1) for more details; but this also requires MTA-specific knowledge.

   Serving public-inboxes
       Since public-inboxes are git repositories, they may be served to remote clients via
       git-daemon(1) as well as specialized HTTP and NNTP daemons distributed with public-inbox.

       See public-inbox-httpd(1) and public-inbox-nntpd(1) for more information on using these
       daemons.

       Hosting a public-inbox over HTTP or NNTP will never require write access to any files in
       the inbox directory.

       Users familiar with PSGI and Plack may also use PublicInbox::WWW with the preferred server
       instead of public-inbox-httpd(1)

CONTACT

       Feedback welcome via plain-text mail to <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>

       The mail archives are hosted at <https://public-inbox.org/meta/> and
       <http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2016-2021 all contributors <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>

       License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>