docheckgroups(8)


NAME

   docheckgroups - Process checkgroups and output a list of changes

SYNOPSIS

   docheckgroups [-u] [include-pattern [exclude-pattern]]

DESCRIPTION

   docheckgroups is usually run by controlchan in order to process
   checkgroups control messages.  It reads a list of newsgroups along with
   their descriptions on its standard input.  That list should be
   formatted like the newsgroups(5) file:  each line contains the name of
   a newsgroup followed by one or more tabulations and its description.

   docheckgroups will only check the presence of newsgroups which match
   include-pattern (an egrep expression like "^comp\..*$" for newsgroups
   starting with "comp.") and which do not match exclude-pattern (also an
   egrep expression) except for newsgroups mentioned in the
   pathetc/localgroups file.  This file is also formatted like the
   newsgroups(5) file and should contain local newsgroups which would
   otherwise be mentioned for removal.  There is no need to put local
   newsgroups of hierarchies for which no checkgroups control messages are
   sent, unless you manually process checkgroups texts for them.  Lines
   beginning with a hash sign ("#") are not taken into account in this
   file.  All the newsgroups and descriptions mentioned in
   pathetc/localgroups are appended to the processed checkgroups.

   If exclude-pattern is given, include-pattern should also be given
   before (you can use an empty string ("") if you want to include all the
   newsgroups).  Be that as it may, docheckgroups will only check
   newsgroups in the top-level hierarchies which are present in the
   checkgroups.

   Then, docheckgroups checks the active and newsgroups files and displays
   on its standard output a list of changes, if any.  It does not change
   anything by default; it only points out what should be changed:

   * Newsgroups which should be removed (they are in the active file but
     not in the checkgroups) and the relevant ctlinnd commands to achieve
     that;

   * Newsgroups which should be added (they are not in the active file but
     in the checkgroups) and the relevant ctlinnd commands to achieve
     that;

   * Newsgroups which are incorrectly marked as moderated or unmoderated
     (they are both in the active file and the checkgroups but their
     status differs) and the relevant ctlinnd commands to fix that;

   * Descriptions which should be removed (they are in the newsgroups file
     but not in the checkgroups);

   * Descriptions which should be added (they are not in the newsgroups
     file but in the checkgroups).

   The output of docheckgroups can be fed into mod-active (it will pause
   the news server, update the active file accordingly, reload it and
   resume the work of the news server) or into the shell (commands for
   ctlinnd will be processed one by one).  In order to update the
   newsgroups file, the -u flag must be given to docheckgroups.

   When processing a checkgroups manually, it is always advisable to first
   check the raw output of docheckgroups.  Then, if everything looks fine,
   use mod-active and the -u flag.

OPTIONS

   -u  If this flag is given, docheckgroups will update the newsgroups
       file: it removes obsolete descriptions and adds new ones.  It also
       sorts this file alphabetically and improves its general format (see
       newsgroups(5) for an explanation of the preferred number of
       tabulations).

EXAMPLES

   So as to better understand how docheckgroups works, here are examples
   with the following active file:

       a.first 0000000000 0000000001 y
       a.second.announce 0000000000 0000000001 y
       a.second.group 0000000000 0000000001 y
       b.additional 0000000000 0000000001 y
       b.third 0000000000 0000000001 y
       c.fourth 0000000000 0000000001 y

   the following newsgroups file (using tabulations):

       a.first             First group.
       a.second.announce   Announce group.
       a.second.group      Second group.
       b.third             Third group.
       c.fourth            Fourth group.

   and the following localgroups file (using tabulations):

       b.additional        A local newsgroup I want to keep.

   The checkgroups we process is in the file test which contains:

       a.first             First group.
       a.second.announce   Announce group. (Moderated)
       a.second.group      Second group.
       b.third             Third group.
       c.fourth            Fourth group.

   If we run:

       cat test | docheckgroups

   docheckgroups will output that a.second.announce is incorrectly marked
   as unmoderated and that its description is obsolete.  Besides, two new
   descriptions will be mentioned for addition (the new one for
   a.second.announce and the missing description for b.additional -- it
   should indeed be in the newsgroups file and not only in localgroups).
   Now that we have checked the output of docheckgroups and that we agree
   with the changes, we run it with the -u flag to update the newsgroups
   file and we redirect the standard output to mod-active to update the
   active file:

       cat test | docheckgroups -u | mod-active

   That's all!

   Now, suppose we run:

       cat test | docheckgroups "^c\..*$"

   Nothing is output (indeed, everything is fine for the c.* hierarchy).
   It would have been similar if the test file had only contained the
   checkgroups for the c.* hierarchy (docheckgroups would not have checked
   a.* and b.*, even if they had been in include-pattern).

   In order to check both a.* and c.*, you can run:

       cat test | docheckgroups "^a\..*$|^c\..*$"

   And if you want to check a.* but not a.second.*, you can run:

       cat test | docheckgroups "^a\..*$" "^a\.second\..*$"

   In our example, docheckgroups will then mention a.second.announce and
   a.second.group for removal since they are in the active file (the same
   goes for their descriptions).  Notwithstanding, if you do want to keep
   a.second.announce, just add this group to localgroups and docheckgroups
   will no longer mention it for removal.

FILES

   pathbin/docheckgroups
       The Shell script itself used to process checkgroups.

   pathetc/localgroups
       The list of local newsgroups along with their descriptions.

HISTORY

   Documentation written by Julien Elie for InterNetNews.

   $Id: docheckgroups.pod 8357 2009-02-27 17:56:00Z iulius $

SEE ALSO

   active(5), controlchan(8), ctlinnd(8), mod-active(8), newsgroups(5).





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