NAME

       innxbatch - send xbatched Usenet articles to a remote NNTP server

SYNOPSIS

       innxbatch [ -D ] [ -t timeout ] [ -T timeout ] [ -v ] host file ...

DESCRIPTION

       Innxbatch  connects  to  the  NNTP server at the specified host and sends it the specified
       xbatch files, using the XBATCH extension to the NNTP protocol. It is normally invoked by a
       script  run  out  of  cron(8)  that  uses  shlock(1)  to lock the host name, followed by a
       ctlinnd(8) command to flush the batchfile.

       Innxbatch normally blocks until the connection is made.  To specify a timeout on how  long
       to try to make the connection, use the ``-t'' flag.
       To  specify the total amount of time that should be allowed for article transfers, use the
       ``-T'' flag.
       The default is to wait  until  an  I/O  error  occurs,  or  all  the  articles  have  been
       transferred.  If  the  ``-T''  flag is used, the time is checked just before an article is
       started; it will not abort a transfer that is in progress. Both  values  are  measured  in
       seconds.

       Each fileis removed after it has been successfully transferred.

       If  a  communication  error  such  as  a write(2) failure, or an unexpected reply from the
       remote server occurs, innxbatch will stop sending and leave all remaining files  untouched
       for later retry.

       Upon  exit,  innxbatch  reports  transfer  and CPU usage statistics via syslog(3).  If the
       ``-v'' flag is used, they will also be printed on the standard output.

       Use the ``-D'' flag to print debugging information on standard error.  This will show  the
       protocol transactions between innxbatch and the NNTP server on the remote host.

       A sample newsfeeds(5) entry to produce appropriate xbatch files (thanks to Karsten Leipold
       <poldi@dfn.de>):

         nase\
           :*\
           :Tc,Wnb\
           :/usr/lib/news/bin/batcher \
              -p "(/bin/gzip > /var/spool/news/out.going/nase.\$\$)" \
              nase.do.main

       A sample script to invoke innxbatch(8) is:

         #!/bin/sh
         ##  SH script to send xbatches for a site, wrapped around innxbatch
         ##  Invocation:
         ##     sendxbatches.sh <sitename> <hostname> <xbatch file name> ...

         if [ $# -le 3 ]
         then
            echo "usage: $0 <sitename> <hostname> <xbatch file name>"
            exit 1
         fi

         ##  =()<  . @<_PATH_SHELLVARS>@>()=
         . /usr/lib/news/innshellvars

         site="$1"; host="$2"; shift; shift

         ctlinnd flush "$site" \
         && sleep 5 \
         && exec $NEWSBIN/innxbatch -v -D "$host" $*

HISTORY

       Written by Stefan Petri <petri@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de>, modelled after innxmit(8) and the  XBATCH
       patch for the nntp reference implementation.

SEE ALSO

       innxmit(8), nntpsend(8), ctlinnd(8), innd(8), newsfeeds(5), shlock(1).

                                                                                     INNXBATCH(8)