NAME

       procbatch - Process an INN funnel file or innfeed-dropped file

SYNOPSIS

       procbatch [-hquv] [-c [-s spooldir]] [-d outdir] [-e peer] [-m [-t backlogdir]] batchfile

DESCRIPTION

       procbatch will take an INN funnel or innfeed-dropped file and split it up by host for
       direct processing with innfeed or innxmit.

       While funnel files will normally only be of interest after a crash, innfeed may drop
       articles for a variety of reasons, not all of which indicate a fundamental problem.  For
       example, innfeed may drop articles when started and stopped in quick succession while INN
       processes a large number of control messages (a temporary indisposition), or when INN
       feeds it articles for a site that isn't in innfeed.conf (a misconfiguration).

       Every running innfeed opens a file named innfeed-dropped.<id>, which should normally
       always be zero length and deleted on exit.  If there are non-zero length files, innfeed
       has dropped some articles, and those dropped article files have to be processed or those
       articles will never be sent to peers.  Though news.daily automatically process these files
       (invoking procbatch), it is also possible to do that manually.  First make sure that the
       file doesn't correspond to a currently running innfeed, for example by calling "ctlinnd
       flush innfeed!".

       An INN funnel file, or an innfeed-dropped file, will usually be of the format:

           pathname message-id peer1 peer2 peer3 ...

       where pathname can alternatively be a storage API token.

       procbatch will break this file up into files named peer1.tmp, peer2.tmp, peer3.tmp, etc.
       of the format:

           pathname message-id

       These tape files will be sorted and stripped of duplicate entries.  Simply renaming them
       to peer1, peer2, peer3, etc. in a running innfeed's backlog directory will cause them to
       be picked up automatically by innfeed every backlog-newfile-period seconds (as set in
       innfeed.conf).  Use the -m flag to have procbatch rename and move them into place
       automatically.

       After running procbatch, you may want to make sure that every generated backlog file has a
       corresponding ".lock" file.  Otherwise, innfeed doesn't have that site configured as a
       peer, meaning your innfeed.conf may need fixing.

OPTIONS

       -c  Check for the existence of an article before writing references to it to the tape
           files.  Currently, this option can only be used with a tradspool article store.  Using
           it with any other spool format will lead to all articles being dropped.

       -d outdir
           Put the output file(s) into the directory outdir (defaults to pathtmp as set in
           inn.conf).  When also specifying -m, the temporary output files will still be put here
           before being moved into their final location.

       -e peer
           Only process entries for peer.

       -h  Display a short help screen.

       -m  Directly append to tape files in innfeed's backlog directory.

       -q  Quiet mode: only display error messages.

       -s spooldir
           Use spooldir as the location of the article spool (defaults to patharticles as set in
           inn.conf).  This option has an effect only on a tradspool storage system when also
           specifying -c.

       -t backlogdir
           Use backlogdir as the location of the innfeed backlog directory (the directory where
           the created tape files will be put).  Defaults to pathspool/innfeed.  This option has
           an effect only when also specifying -m.

       -u  Unlink the input batchfile after processing.

       -v  Add verbosity.

EXAMPLES

       Take the file innfeed-dropped.B012345, process its lines appending to tapefiles in
       innfeed's backlog directory, and remove it when done.  Be verbose while doing so:

           procbatch -umv innfeed-dropped.B012345

       Go through innfeed-dropped.B012345 saving entries for "peer1" in /tmp/peer1.tmp, but only
       if the articles are still available in the local tradspool:

           procbatch -e peer1 -d /tmp -c innfeed-dropped.B012345

BUGS

       procbatch should be able to check for the existence of articles with any kind of article
       store, possibly using grephistory.

HISTORY

       procbatch was written by James Brister and improved for speed by Clayton O'Neill.

       This manual page was written by Florian Schlichting, with the help of a memo by Russ
       Allbery.

SEE ALSO

       innfeed(8), innxmit(8), news.daily(8).