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NEWSD.CONF(1)

Name

Description

Newsd uses three types of configuration files for each instance of the server: a global configuration file called "newsd.conf", a per-group configuration file called ".config", and a per-group status file called ".info".

The Newsd.conf File

    ServerName foo.bar.com

The following directives are supported:

ErrorLog value

Specifies the file to use for logging information, errors, and debugging information. "stderr" specifies that the messages should be sent to the standard error file. "syslog" specifies that the messages should be logged via the syslog interface. If value begins with the pipe (|) character, the rest of the value is treated as a command to pipe the error messages into. Otherwise, value is treated as an absolute filename. The default is "syslog".

HostnameLookups value

When a client connects to the news server, this directive controls whether the server looks up the client's IP address. Value can be "off" to disable IP address lookups (the IP address will be logged instead), "on" to enable IP address lookups, or "double" to enable IP address lookup and verification. The default is "off".

Listen address:port

Listen port

Listens on the specified address and/or port number for new connections. Address can be an IP address, hostname, or "*" to specify the "any" address; if no address is specified, "*" is assumed. Port can be a port number or TCP service name. The default is to listen on address "*" (any) and port "nntp" (119).

LogLevel value

Specifies the amount of information to log; "error" specifies that only error messages should be logged. "info" specifies that informational and error messages should be logged. "debug" specifies that debugging, informational, and error messages should be logged. The default is "info".

MaxClients number

Specifies the maximum number of simultaneous clients. If number is 0, then there is no limit. The default is 0.

MaxLogSize value

Specifies the maximum size for the newsd log file before it's automatically rotated. Value is in bytes. A value of 0 disables automatic size checks. The default is 1000000.

ServerName name

Specifies the hostname that is reported to clients. The default is the name reported by hostname|(1).

SendMail command

Specifies the command to use when sending mail messages. The default is "/usr/lib/sendmail".

SpoolDir directory

Specifies the root directory for newsgroup files and directories. The default is "/var/spool/newsd".

Timeout seconds

Specifies the number of seconds to keep an idle news client connection open; specify 0 to disable the idle timeout. The default is 43200 seconds (12 hours).

User name

Specifies the user account the newsd process will run under. The default user account is "news".

Newsgroup Files And Directory

The directory hierarchy dictates the available news groups, e.g.

    /var/spool/news/rush/general

is the directory for the 'rush.general' news group, and in that directory will be one file per news article, each filename being the article's number, eg:

    /var/spool/news/rush/general/1
    /var/spool/news/rush/general/2
    /var/spool/news/rush/general/3

would be the pathnames for the three news articles whose article numbers are 1, 2 and 3. Each article contains the complete ascii text of the article, including the article's header and message body, as per RFC 1036.

The directory permissions should be:

    chown -R news.news /var/spool/news
    find /var/spool/news -type d -exec chmod 755 {} e;
    find /var/spool/news -type f -exec chmod 644 {} e;

Each active newsgroup's directory has its own .config file. For example, the newsgroup 'rush.general' would have a .config file called:

    /var/spool/news/rush/general/.config

which might look like:

    description Rush render queue discussion group
    creator     news@news.domain.com
    postok      1
    postlimit   1000
    ccpost      erco@domain.com
    replyto     -

Any newsgroup directory that does not have a .config file will not show up in users' news readers.

Manual modification of these files should be done carefully if the newsd daemon is running. Do the following to prevent newsd from loading a file while it is being edited:

1) Make a copy of the file called ".config.new".

2) Modify the copy.

3) Rename the copy to ".config" to make it take effect.

The .config File Format

description text

Specifies the one line description of this group, which shows up when people first subscribe to the newsgroup.

creator email-address

Specifies the email address of the owner of this group. Where mail should be sent regarding questions about the maintenance and administration of the group. This address is also used as the Errors-To: address for all email messages sent by efRnewsdefB.

postok value

Controls whether articles can be posted to this group. "0" indicates posting is not allowed (read-only group) while "1" indicates anyone can post to this group. The default value is "1".

postlimit number-lines

Specifies the maximum number of lines in an article. Articles will be rejected if they exceed this value. Set this value to "0" to disable the limit. The default limit is "1000".

ccpost address[,address,...]

ccpost -

Sets the list of email addresses to be cc'ed whenever a posting is made to the group. If set to '-', no email is sent. A single line of addresses may not exceed 255 characters; to make longer lists of addresses, use separate lines, eg:

    ccpost a@foo.com,b@foo.com,c@foo.com
    ccpost d@foo.com

    ccpost a@foo.com
    ccpost b@foo.com
    ccpost c@foo.com

replyto email-address

replyto -

Specifies an email address for the Reply-To header. This forces replies to be sent to the specifies address, typically a mail gateway back to the newsgroup. If set to "-", no Reply-To header will be sent. The default is "-".

.info Files

See Also

newsd|(8) - erco's simple nntp news server

RFC 977 - NNTP Protocol

RFC 2890 - NNTP extensions

RFC 1036 - Usenet news messages format

Reporting Bugs

Supported News Readers

Authors