NAME

       trn-artchk - check a news article's validity

SYNOPSIS

       trn-artchk article maxLineLen newsgroupsFile activeFile

DESCRIPTION

       trn-artchk  will  check  an  article intended for posting to USENET for validity, printing
       warnings if problems are found.  As the name implies, it's  mostly  intended  to  be  used
       internally by the trn(1) newsreader.

       It  will  check the article for a variety of problems, including overlong lines, incorrect
       header syntax, missing trailing newline and attempt to post to invalid newsgroups. It will
       print a summary of groups the article is intended for, with descriptions.

OPTIONS

       article
              This should be the file containing the article to check.

       maxLineLen
              should  be  the  maximum  line  length  to  accept. A warning will be issued if the
              article contains any lines longer than this.

       newsgroupsFile
              should be a newsgroups file in the standard format used by NNTP  servers.   If  the
              file is not found, trn-artchk will attempt to make an NNTP connection to obtain the
              information. Note that even if it is desired to obtain  the  information  from  the
              server this article must still be present, as a placeholder.

       activeFile
              should  be  an  NNTP  server  active  file.  The same notes apply to this as to the
              argument.

AUTHOR

       Wayne Davison, Stan Barber and Larry Wall are all candidates for authorship of trn-artchk;
       its provenance is uncertain.

       Peter Maydell <pmaydell@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote this manual page.

SEE ALSO

       trn(1)

                                          September 1999                            TRN-ARTCHK(1)