INEWS(1)
NAME
inews - send a Usenet article to the local news server for
distribution
SYNOPSIS
inews [ -h ] [ -D ] [ -O ] [ -R ] [ -S ] [ header_flags ]
[ input ]
DESCRIPTION
Inews reads a Usenet news article (perhaps with headers)
from the named file or standard input if no file is given.
It adds some headers and performs some consistency checks.
If the article does not meet these checks (for example,
too much quoting of old articles, or posting to non-exis-
tent newsgroups) then the article is rejected. If it
passes the checks, inews sends the article to the local
news server as specified in the inn.conf(5) file for dis-
tribution.
OPTIONS
-h In the standard mode of operation, the input con-
sists of the article headers, a blank line, and the
message body. For compatibility with older soft-
ware, the ``-h'' flag must be used. If there are
no headers in the message, then this flag may be
omitted.
-O The default Organization header will be provided if
none is present in the article or if the ``-o''
flag is not used. To prevent adding the default,
use the ``-O'' flag.
-D As a debugging aide, if the ``-D'' flag is used,
the consistency checks will be performed, and the
article will be sent to the standard output, rather
then sent to the server.
-A -V -W
For compatibility with C News, inews accepts, but
ignores, the ``-A'', ``-V'' and ``-W'' flags.
-N The C News ``-N'' flag is treated as the ``-D''
flag.
-S If a file named .signature exists in the user's
home directory, inews will try to append it to the
end of the article. If the file cannot be read, or
if it is too long (for example, more than four
lines or one standard I/O buffer), or if some other
problem occurs, then the article will not be
posted. To suppress this action use the ``-S''
flag.
-R If the ``-R'' flag is used then inews will reject
any attempts to post control messages.
header_flags
Several headers may be specified on the command
line, shown in the synopsis above as header_flags.
Each of these flags takes a single parameter; if
the value is more than one word (for example,
almost all Subject lines) then quotes must be used
to prevent the shell from splitting it into multi-
ple words. The options, and their equivalent
header, are as follows:
a Approved
c Control
d Distribution
e Expires
f From
w Followup-To
n Newsgroups
r Reply-To
t Subject
F References
o Organization
x Path prefix
If the ``-x'' flag is used, then its value will be
the start of the header. Any other host will see
the site in the header, and therefore not offer the
article to that site. The Path will always end
not-for-mail.
NOTES
If an unapproved posting is made to a moderated newsgroup,
inews will try to mail the article to the moderator for
posting. It uses the moderators(5) file to determine the
mailing address. If no address is found, it will use the
inn.conf file to determine a ``last-chance'' host to try.
If the NNTP server needs to authenticate the client, inews
will use the NNTPsendpassword(3) routine to authenticate
itself. In order to do this, the program will need read
access to the passwd.nntp(5) file. This is typically done
by having the file group-readable and making inews run
setgid to that group.
Inews exits with a zero status if the article was succes-
fully posted or mailed, or with a non-zero status if the
article could not be delivered.
Since inews will spool its input if the server is unavail-
able, it is usually necessary to run rnews(1) with the
``-U'' flag on a regular basis, usually out of cron(8).
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz lt;rsalz@uunet.uu.net for InterNet-
News. This is revision 1.27, dated 1996/10/29.
SEE ALSO
moderators(5) inn.conf(5). rnews(1).