CONTROL.CTL(5)
NAME
control.ctl - specify handling of Usenet control messages
DESCRIPTION
The file /etc/news/control.ctl is used to determine what
action is taken when a control message is received. It is
read by the parsecontrol script, which is called by all
the control scripts. (For an explanation of how the con-
trol scripts are invoked, see innd(8).)
The file consists of a series of lines; blank lines and
lines beginning with a number sign (``#'') are ignored.
All other lines consist of four fields separated by a
colon:
message:from:newsgroups:action
The first field is the name of the message for which this
line is valid. It should be either the name of the con-
trol message, or the word ``all'' to mean that it is valid
for all messages.
The second field is a shell-style pattern that matches the
email address of the person posting the message. (The
poster's address is first converted to lowercase.) The
matching is done using the shell's case statement; see sh
(1) for details.
If the control message is ``newgroup'' or ``rmgroup'' then
the third field specifies the shell-style pattern that
must match the group being created or removed. If the
control message is of a different type, then this field is
ignored.
The fourth field specifies what action to take if this
line is selected for the message. The following actions
are understood:
doit The action requested by the control message should
be performed. In most cases the control script
will also send mail to news.
doifarg
If the control message has an argument, this is
treated as a ``doit'' action. If no argument was
given, it is treated as a ``mail'' entry. This is
used in ``sendsys'' entries script so that a site
can request its own newsfeeds(5) entry by posting a
``sendsys mysite'' article. On the other hand,
sendsys ``bombs'' ask that the entire newsfeeds
file be sent to a forged reply-to address; by using
``doifarg'' such messages will not be processed
automatically.
doit=file
The action is performed, but a log entry is written
to the specified log file, file. If file is the
word ``mail'' then the record is mailed. A null
string is equivalent to /dev/null. A pathname that
starts with a slash is taken as the absolute file-
name to use as the log. All other pathnames are
written to /var/log/news/file.log. The log is
written by writelog (see newslog(8)).
drop No action is taken; the message is ignored.
log A one-line log notice is sent to standard error.
Innd normally directs this to the file
/var/log/news/errlog.
log=file
A log entry is written to the specified log file,
file, which is interpreted as described above.
mail A mail message is sent to the news administrator.
Lines are matched in order; the last match found in the
file is the one that is used. For example, with the fol-
lowing three lines:
newgroup:*:*:drop
newgroup:tale@*.uu.net:comp.*|misc.*|news.*|rec.*|sci.*|soc.*|talk.*:doit
newgroup:kre@munnari.oz.au:aus.*:mail
A newgroup coming from ``tale'' at a UUNET machine will be
honored if it is in the mainstream Usenet hierarchy. If
``kre'' posts a newgroup message creating ``aus.foo'',
then mail will be sent. All other newgroup messages are
ignored.
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz lt;rsalz@uunet.uu.net for InterNet-
News. This is revision 1.8, dated 1996/09/06.
SEE ALSO
innd(8) newsfeeds(5) scanlogs(8).