Send a usenet article to the local news server for distribution
inews [ -h ] [ -D ] [ -O ] [ -R ] [ -S ] [ header_flags ] [ input ]
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-existent 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 distribution.
-h
In the standard mode of operation, the input consists of the article headers, a blank line, and the message body. For compatibility with older software, 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 multiple 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.
If an unapproved posting is made to a moderated newsgroup, inews will try to mail the article to the moderator for posting. It will query the remote news server for a moderators listing. If that doesn't succeed, it will fallback to using the local 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 succesfully 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 unavailable, it is usually necessary to run rnews(1) with the ``-U'' flag on a regular basis, usually out of cron(8).
Written by Rich $alz <[email protected]> for InterNetNews. This is revision \$3, dated \$4.