rnews(1)

NAME

   rnews - receive news from a UUCP connection

SYNOPSIS

   rnews [ -h host ] [ -v ] [ -U ] [ -N ] [ -S master ] [ input ]

DESCRIPTION

   Rnews reads messages typically queued by a UUCP newsfeed and sends them
   to the local  InterNetNews  server.   The  message  is  read  from  the
   specified input file, or standard input if no input is named.

   When  sent  over UUCP, Usenet articles are typically joined in a single
   batch to reduce the UUCP overhead.  Batches can also be compressed,  to
   reduce  the  communication  time.   If  a message does not start with a
   number sign (``#'') and an exclamation point, then the entire input  is
   taken  as  a single news article.  If it does start with with those two
   characters, then the first line is read  and  interpreted  as  a  batch
   command.

   If the command is ``#! rnews nnn'' where nnn is a number, then the next
   nnn bytes (starting with the next line) are read as a news article.

   If the command is ``#! cunbatch'' then the rest of input is fed to  the
   compress(1)  program  with  the  ``-d''  flag to uncompress it, and the
   output of this pipe is read as rnews's input.  This is  for  historical
   compatibility --- there is no program named cunbatch.  A compressed batch
   will start with a ``#!  cunbatch''  line,  then  contain  a  series  of
   articles separated by ``#! rnews nnn'' lines.

   If  the  command  is  any  other word, then rnews will try to execute a
   program with that name in the directory /usr/lib/news/rnews.  The batch
   will  be fed into the program's standard input, and the standard output
   will be read back as input into rnews.

   If rnews detects any problems with an article such as a missing header,
   or  an unintelligible reply from the server, it will save a copy of the
   article in the /var/spool/news/in.coming/bad directory.

OPTIONS

   -S     If the ``-S'' flag is used,  then  rnews  will  connect  to  the
          specified host.  If the flag is not used, it will try to connect
          to the server by opening a Unix-domain  stream  connection.   If
          that  fails, it will try to open a TCP connection to the default
          remote server.

   -U     If the server is not available, the message is  spooled  into  a
          new  file  created  in  the /var/spool/news/in.coming directory.
          The ``-U'' flag may be used to send all spooled messages to  the
          server  once  it  becomes  available  again,  and can be invoked
          regularly by cron(8).

   -N     Normally, if unpacking the  input  fails  it  is  re-spooled  to
          /var/spool/news/in.coming  for  another  attempt  later.  If the
          ``-N'' flag is used then no such re-spooling is done  and  rnews
          exits with status value ``9'' to indicate this.

   -v     If the ``-v'' flag is used, it will print a notice of all errors
          on the standard error, naming the  input  file  (if  known)  and
          printing  the  first  few  characters  of the input.  Errors are
          always logged through syslog(3).

   -h     If the ``-h'' flag is given, or  failing  that,  the  enviroment
          variable  UU_MACHINE is set, then rnews will log the Message-ID,
          and host, for each article offered to the server via  syslog(3).
          Logging will only be done if the value is not an empty string.

BUGS

   Rnews cannot process articles that have embedded \0's in them.

HISTORY

   Written  by  Rich  $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  This is
   revision 1.23, dated 1996/11/08.

SEE ALSO

   innd(8).

                                                                  RNEWS(1)

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