active(5)

NAME

   active, active.times - list of active Usenet newsgroups

DESCRIPTION

   The  file /var/lib/news/active lists the newsgroups that the local site
   receives.  Each newsgroup  should  be  listed  only  once.   Each  line
   specifies  one  group; their order in the file does not matter.  Within
   each  newsgroup,  articles  are  assigned  unique  names,   which   are
   monotonically increasing numbers.

   If an article is posted to newsgroups not mentioned in this file, those
   newsgroups are ignored.  If no  valid  newsgroups  are  specified,  the
   article  is  filed  into  the newsgroup ``junk'' and only propagated to
   sites that receive the ``junk'' newsgroup.

   Each line consists of four fields specified by a space:

                  name himark lomark flags

   The first field is the name of the newsgroup.  The second field is  the
   highest article number that has been used in that newsgroup.  The third
   field is the lowest article number in the group;  this  number  is  not
   guaranteed to be accurate, and should only be taken to be a hint.  Note
   that because of  article  cancellations,  there  may  be  gaps  in  the
   numbering  sequence.   If the lowest article number is greater then the
   highest article number, then there are no articles  in  the  newsgroup.
   In  order  to  make  it  possible  to  update an entry in-place without
   rewriting the entire file, the second and third fields are  padded  out
   with leading zeros to make them a fixed width.

   The fourth field can contain one of the following flags:

          y        Local postings are allowed
          n        No local postings are allowed, only remote ones
          m        The group is moderated and all postings must be approved
          j        Articles in this group are not kept, but only passed on
          x        Articles cannot be posted to this newsgroup
          =foo.bar Articles are locally filed into the ``foo.bar'' group

   If  a newsgroup has the ``j'' flag, then no articles will be filed into
   that  newsgroup  and  local  postings  to  that  group  should  not  be
   generated.   If  an  article  for  such  a newsgroup is received from a
   remote site, it will be filed into the ``junk'' newsgroup if it is  not
   cross-posted.   This is different from not having a newsgroup listed in
   the file because sites  can  subscribe  to  ``j''  newsgroups  and  the
   article will be propagated to them.

   If  the fourth field of a newsgroup starts with an equal sign, then the
   newsgroup is an alias.  Articles can be posted to the group,  but  will
   be  treated  as  if they were posted to the group named after the equal
   sign.  The  second  and  third  fields  are  ignored.   Note  that  the
   Newsgroup  header  is  not  modified  (Alias  groups are typically used
   during a transition, and are typically created  with  ctlinnd(8)).   An
   alias newsgroup should not point to another alias.

   The  file /var/lib/news/active.times provides a chronological record of
   when newsgroups are created.  This file is normally updated by  innd(8)
   whenever  a ctlinnd ``newgroup'' command is done.  Each line consist of
   three fields:

          name time creator

   The first field is the name of the newsgroup.  The second field is  the
   time it was created, expressed as the number of seconds since the epoch
   --- i.e.,  a  time_t;  see  gettimeofday(2).   The  third  field  is  the
   electronic mail address of the person who created the group.

HISTORY

   Written  by  Rich  $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  This is
   revision 1.13, dated 1996/10/29.

SEE ALSO

   ctlinnd(8), innd(8).

                                                                 ACTIVE(5)

---

More Linux Commands

---