newspost - a usenet binary autoposter

newspost [options [arguments]] <filenames>

Newspost is a usenet binary autoposter. It will uuencode or yencode files and post them to usenet newsgroups. In addition, it can automatically generate and post .SFV checksum files and .PAR parity files.

-i <address>

The news server to post to. <address> must be either a hostname or an IP address. If the NNTPSERVER environment variable is set, this is set to that value by default.

-z <number>

Sets the port on which to connect to <number>.

-u <string>

Sets your username on the news server to <string>.

-p <string>

Sets your password on the news server to <string>.

-f <address>

Your e-mail address. <address> must be a real e-mail address, or your posts may fail. If the USER and HOSTNAME environment variables are set, this is set to $USER@$HOSTNAME by default.

-F <string>

Sets your name in the From header line to <string>. Please note: if your name has spaces in it, it should be enclosed in quotes.

-o <string>

Sets the Organization header line to <string>. Please note: if your organization has spaces in it, it should be enclosed in quotes.

-n <string>

Sets the newsgroup to post to. <string> may also be a comma separated list of newsgroups, but you may only post to at most 5 newsgroups.

-s <string>

Sets <string> as the Subject header line. This subject line is always appended with ' - filename (1/9)' (depending on the filename, part number, and number of parts). Other options may add or change information in the subject line (see those options for details). Please note: if your subject has spaces in it, it should be enclosed in quotes. See EXAMPLES for more information.

-w <string>

Sets the Followup-To header line. <string> must be a newsgroup.

-m <address>

Sets the Reply-To header line. <address> must be an e-mail address.

-r <string>

Set the References header line. <string> must be a message-ID or a comma-separated list of message-IDs.

-x

By default all posts include the "X-No-Archive: yes" header. This option DISABLES that behaviour.

-X <string>

Sets <string> as a complete header line. This option may be specified multiple times to add more header lines. Please note: do not use this feature unless you know exactly what you are doing.

-q

This specifies that ' - File 01 of 10: ' (depending on the file number and number of files) will be added to the subject line after text specified by the -s switch, and before the file information. If the file being posted is a generated .SFV file, then the string is ' - SFV File 1 of 1: '. If the file is a generated .PAR file, the string is ' - PAR File 01 of 10: ' (depending on the .PAR file number and the number of .PAR files). See EXAMPLES for more information.

-y

Use yencoding instead of uuencoding. Yencoding results in smaller, faster posts, but most news readers do not support yencoding. When yencoding is enabled, ' - "filename" yEnc (1/9)' is appended to the subject line instead of what is specified above for the -s option. Please see http://www.yenc.org for more information about yencoding.

-e <filename>

Posts <filename> as a text file (no encoding) before the first file posted. This file is posted with the exact subject line as the first file posted, except that (0/9) is displayed as the part number (depending on the number of parts in the first file posted). As an alternative, "-0" (zero, not 'O') may be used instead of "-e".

-E

Opens the editor set by the EDITOR environment variable to create a temporary text file which is posted as a prefix, like a file specified with the -e option. If EDITOR is not set then vi is used.

-c <filename>

Generates and posts a .SFV checksum file named <filename>. If <filename> does not end in '.sfv', it will automatically be appended to the filename. Note the change from newspost 1.x, which used "-v" for this option; also, the .SFV file is now posted first instead of last.

-a <filename>

Generates and posts .PAR files whose name is based on <filename>. If <filename> does not end in '.par', it will automatically be appended to the filename. The .PAR header will end in '.par', and each .PAR volume will end in '.p01', '.p02', etcetera. Please see http://parchive.sourceforge.net for more information about .PAR files.

-A <number>

Sets the number of .PAR volumes to create to <number>. This is in addition to the .PAR header file. The -a option must be used for this option to do anything.

-B <number>

Sets the number of .PAR volumes to create based on the number of files. For every <number> files, newspost will create one .PAR volume. This is in addition to the .PAR header file. By default, newspost creates one .PAR volume for every ten files posted.

-l <number>

Sets the number of lines per message to <number>. Most people post messages which are between 5000 and 10000 lines long. By default, this is set to 7500. Note: For uuencoded messages, this is the actual number of lines in the body of the message; but for yencoded messages, it's used to determine the size of each segment before encoding, by multiplying the specified number of lines by 45 (which is the size of a uuencoded line before encoding). Thus, the size of each segment before encoding is the same for either method, but the actual line count for yencoded segments will vary.

-t

When this option is specified, one file may be posted as a plain text message. If no file is specified, EDITOR (or vi) is opened to create the message.

-T <number>

Sets the time to wait before posting to <number>. This number is interpreted in seconds by default, but you can specify, for example, "3m" if you want 3 minutes, or "1h" if you want 1 hour. This number can also be specified in hours:minutes:seconds or minutes:seconds format. e.g. "5:30" if you want to wait 5 minutes 30 seconds, or "4:0:0" if you want to wait 4 hours. This value is set to 10 seconds by default, and may not be set to less than 3 seconds.

-k <dirname>

Sets the directory to be used for storing temporary files to <dirname>. <dirname> must exist. If the TMPDIR environment variable is set, this is set to that value by default. If the TMP environment variable is set (and TMPDIR is not), this is set to that value by default.

-d

Sets the current options as default by saving them to $HOME/.newspostrc. Only the following options may be saved as default: -i, -z, -u, -p, -f, -F, -o, -n, -w, -m, -x, -q, -y, -B, -l, -X, and -k.

-D <option>

This option disables or clears other options. When y, q, or x is passed as <option>, it has the OPPOSITE effect of either the -y, -q, or -x option, respectively. It will clear the corresponding options for u, p, F, o, w, and m. It also takes X as an argument, but it clears ALL extra headers set with the -X option. This option may be specified multiple times with different values for <option>. Please note only options that are not required can be cleared.

-v

When this option is specified, newspost will be extra verbose. (Note that "-v" was used for .SFV generation in newspost 1.x.)

-V

Print version information and exit.

-h

Print help and exit. This is the default when there are no arguments.

Parts of files may be posted by specifying filenames in the following format: 'filename:partnumbers'. Colons in the first or second position (as after a drive letter) are ignored. Partnumbers is a comma-separated list of parts to post. Each item in the list may be any of three formats: '2' (a single part), '2-5' (parts 2, 3, 4, and 5), or '2+' (part 2 and all parts up to and including the last part). If, for example, you want to post parts 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12 of track01.mp3 (a 12 part file), you could specify the filename like this: 'track01.mp3:2,4-6,10+'. If there is no ':' in a specified filename, newspost will post the entire file. If the number 0 is specified after the colon, newspost will add the file to generated .SFV and .PAR files, and preserve ' - File x of y: ' numbering, but not actually post the file. See EXAMPLES for more information. Please note: If your files did not post completely, your file is much more likely to post properly if you repost the entire file, or split the file into smaller parts and post them.

While posting, Newspost shows the approximate upload speed in bytes per second. This is measured by the total number of encoded bytes sent to the server. In Newspost 1.x, the speed indicator was based on the number of unencoded bytes, so this speed indicator will show a higher number, though the speed is the same. If you are connecting to your news server via a compressed link, you may see a difference in transfer rates when using uuencoding vs. yencoding.

$HOME/.newspostrc is an optional file used to store defaults. Newspost will also read (but not write) the old-style .newspost file if it is present and .newspostrc is not.

HOME

Specifies your home directory. Newspost will not work properly if this is not set.

NNTPSERVER

Specifies the hostname or IP address of your news server.

USER

Used in creating the default from address if HOSTNAME is set.

HOSTNAME

Used in creating the default from address if USER is set.

TMPDIR

Specifies the directory used for creating temporary files.

TMP

Specifies the directory used for creating temporary files if TMPDIR is not set.

EDITOR

Specifies the text editor to use.

Save your news server, e-mail address, and name as default:

newspost -d -i news.myisp.com -f newspost@sdf.lonestar.org -F 'Jim Faulkner'

Post some files to alt.binaries.test:

newspost -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

Here are some songs - track01.mp3 (01/15)

Post some files to alt.binaries.test.yenc using yencoding:

newspost -y -n alt.binaries.test.yenc -s 'Here are some more songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

Here are some more songs - "track01.mp3" yEnc (01/12)

Include "File x of y" in the subject:

newspost -q -y -n alt.binaries.test.yenc -s 'Here are some more songs' track01.mp3 track02.mp3 track03.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

Here are some more songs - File 1 of 3: "track01.mp3" yEnc (01/12)

Make yencode and "File x of y" the default:

newspost -d -q -y

Add extra headers to every post by default:

newspost -d -X 'X-My-Stupid-Header-1' -X 'X-My-Stupid-Header-2'

Clear extra headers and "File x of y", set uuencode, default:

newspost -d -DX -Dq -Dy

Generate and include an SFV file:

newspost -c checksum.sfv -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

Generate and include PAR files:

newspost -a parfile.par -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

Create a PAR volume for every 7 files posted by default:

newspost -d -B 7

Post with 3 PAR volumes:

newspost -q -a parfile.par -A 3 -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some songs' /nfs/music/*.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

Here are some songs - PAR File 1 of 4: parfile.par (1/1)

Post parts 3, 4, and 5 of track01.mp3 to alt.binaries.test:

newspost -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some songs' track01.mp3:3-5

Post all of track01.mp3, parts of track02.mp3 and track03.mp3:

newspost -n alt.binaries.test -s 'Here are some songs' track01.mp3 track02.mp3:11+ track03.mp3:1,3,6-8

Resume a broken post at Track02.mp3 preserving -q numbering:

newspost -q -s '2 songs' Track01.mp3:0 Track02.mp3

A subject line from the above post may look like this:

2 songs - File 2 of 2: Track02.mp3 (1/8)

Post an .SFV file and Track02.mp3, but include Track01.mp3 in the .SFV file:

newspost -c songs.SFV -s '2 songs' Track01.mp3:0 Track01.mp3

Mostly written by Jim Faulkner <newspost@sdf.lonestar.org>, with some help from William McBrine <wmcbrine@users.sf.net>. Portions borrowed from cksfv by Bryan Call, and parchive by Willem Monsuwe.

The most recent version of newspost is available at http://newspost.unixcab.org/