NAME

       expire - Usenet article and history expiration program

SYNOPSIS

       expire [ -d dir ] [ -e ] [ -f file ] [ -g file ] [ -h file ] [ -i ] [ -l ] [ -n ] [ -p ] [
       -q ] [ -r reason ] [ -s ] [ -t ] [ -v level ] [ -w  number  ]  [  -x  ]  [  -z  file  ]  [
       expire.ctl ]

DESCRIPTION

       Expire  scans  the  history(5)  text  file  /var/lib/news/history and uses the information
       recorded in it to purge old news articles.

OPTIONS

       -d     If the ``-d'' flag is used, then the new history file and database  is  created  in
              the  specified  directory,  dir.   This is useful when the filesystem does not have
              sufficient space to hold both the old and new history files.   When  this  flag  is
              used,  expire  leaves  the server paused and creates a zero-length file named after
              the new history file, with an extension  of  ``.done''  to  indicate  that  it  has
              successfully  completed  the expiration.  The calling script should install the new
              history file and un-pause the server.  The ``-r'' flag should  be  used  with  this
              flag.

       -e     If  the ``-e'' flag is used, then as soon as the first cross posting of the article
              expires, all copies of it are removed.

       -f     To specify an alternate history file, use the ``-f'' flag.

       -g     If the ``-g'' flag is given, then a one-line summary equivalent to  the  output  of
              ``-v1'' and preceeded by the current time, will be appended to the specified file.

       -h     To  specify an alternate input text history file, use the ``-h'' flag.  Expire uses
              the old dbz(3z) database to determine the size of the new one.

       -i     To ignore the old database, use the ``-i'' flag.

       -l     Expire normally just unlinks each file if it should be expired.  If the ``-l'' flag
              is  used,  then  all  articles  after the first one are treated as if they could be
              symbolic links to the first one.  In this case,  the  first  article  will  not  be
              removed as long as any other cross-posts of the article remain.

       -n     If  innd is not running, use the ``-n'' flag and expire will not send the ``pause''
              or ``go'' commands.  (For more details on the commands, see ctlinnd(8)).  Note that
              expire  only  needs  exclusive access for a very short time — long enough to see if
              any new articles arrived since it first hit the end of the file, and to rename  the
              new files to the working files.

       -p     Expire makes its decisions on the time the article arrived, as found in the history
              file.  This means  articles  are  often  kept  a  little  longer  than  with  other
              expiration  programs  that  base their decisions on the article's posting date.  To
              use the article's posting date, use the ``-p'' flag.

       -q     Expire normally  complains  about  articles  that  are  posted  to  newsgroups  not
              mentioned in the active file.  To suppress this action, use the ``-q'' flag.

       -r     Expire normally sends a ``pause'' command to the local innd(8) daemon when it needs
              exclusive access to the history file, using the string ``Expiring'' as the  reason.
              To  give  a different reason, use the ``-r'' flag.  The process ID will be appended
              to the reason.  When expire is finished and the new history file is ready, it sends
              a ``go'' command.

       -s     If  the ``-s'' flag is used, then expire will print a summary when it exits showing
              the approximate number of kilobytes used by all deleted articles.

       -t     If the ``-t'' flag is used, then expire will generate a  list  of  the  files  that
              should  be removed on its standard output, and the new history file will be left in
              history.n and history.n.dir and history.n.pag.  This flag be useful  for  debugging
              when  used with the ``-n'' and ``-s'' flags.  Note that if the ``-f'' flag is used,
              then the name specified with that flag will be used instead of history.

       -v     The ``-v'' flag is used to  increase  the  verbosity  of  the  program,  generating
              messages  to  standard  output.  The level should be a number, where higher numbers
              result in more output.  Level one will print totals of  the  various  actions  done
              (not  valid  if  a new history file is not written), level two will print report on
              each individual file, while level five results in more than one line of output  for
              every line processed.

       -w     Use  the  ``-w''  flag to ``warp'' time so that expire thinks it is running at some
              time other then the current time.  The value should  be  a  signed  floating  point
              number of the number of days to use as the offset.

       -x     If  the  ``-x''  flag  is  used, then expire will not create any new history files.
              This is most useful when combined with the ``-n'', ``-s'', and ``-t'' flags to  see
              how different expiration policies would change the amount of disk space used.

       -z     If  the  ``-z''  flag  is  used, then articles are not removed, but their names are
              appended to the specified file.  See the description of expirerm in news.daily(8).

       If a filename is specified, it is taken as the control file and parsed  according  to  the
       rules  in expire.ctl(5).  A single dash (``-'') may be used to read the file from standard
       input.  If no file is specified, the file /etc/news/expire.ctl is read.

HISTORY

       Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  This is revision 1.19,  dated
       1996/10/29.

SEE ALSO

       ctlinnd(8), dbz(3z), expire.ctl(5), history(5), innd(8), inndcomm(3).

                                                                                        EXPIRE(8)