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 and innfeed-delayed.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, permitting specifying several backlog directories.

       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).