NAME

       news.daily - do regular Usenet system administration

SYNOPSIS

       news.daily [ keyword...  ]

DESCRIPTION

       News.daily  performs a number of important Usenet administrative functions.  This includes
       producing a status report, removing old news articles, processing log files, rotating  the
       archived  log  files,  renumbering the active file, removing any old socket files found in
       the ``firewall'' directory, and collecting the output.  This program should be  run  under
       the news administrator's id, not as root.

       By  default,  news.daily  performs  all  of its functions and mails the output to the news
       administrator, usenet.  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).  It may be run more  often,
       but such invocations should at least use 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.

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 removed after
              expiration by calling expirerm(8).

       expctl=path
              Specify the file to use as the expire.ctl(5) file for expire.

       expdir=path
              By default, expire builds  the  new  history(5)  file  and  database  in  the  same
              directory  as the current files.  Using this keyword specifies a different local to
              build the new files (by passing the ''-d'' flag to  expire),  which  will  then  be
              moved to the right location when finished.

       nostat This  keyword  disables  the  status  report generated by innstat (see newslog(8)).
              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.  Use this keyword any
              extra times news.daily is run in the day and the  normal  logfile  processing  (and
              rotation) will not be done.

       noexpire
              By  default,  expire  is  invoked  to remove old news articles.  Using this keyword
              disables this function.

       noexplog
              Expire normally appends information to /var/log/news/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.

       flags='expire args'
              By default, expire is invoked with the an argument of ``-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.

       nologs After  expiration,  scanlogs(8)  is  invoked  to process the log files.  Using this
              keyword disables all log processing functions.

       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.

       norenumber
              This  keyword  disables the ctlinnd(8) renumber operation.  Normally, the low-water
              mark for all newsgroups (see active(5)) is reset.

       norm   By default, any socket ctlinnd socket that has not been modified for two days  will
              be removed.  Using this keyword disables this function.

       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.

       expireover
              The expireover program is called after expiration to purge the overview databases.

       expireoverflags='expireover 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''.

       /full/path
              The  program  specified by the given path 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.

HISTORY

       News.daily and this manual page written by Landon Curt  Noll  <chongo@toad.com>  and  Rich
       $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>.  This is revision 1.11, dated 1996/12/10.

SEE ALSO

       active(5),  ctlinnd(8),  expire(8),  fastrm(8),  newslog(5),  newslog(8), innwatch.ctl(5),
       shlock(1).

                                                                                    NEWS.DAILY(8)