rnews - receive news from a UUCP connection

rnews [ -h host ] [ -N ] [ -P port ] [ -r remote ] [ -S remote ] [ -U ] [ -v ] [ input ]

Rnews reads messages typically queued by a UUCP newsfeed and sends them to the InterNetNews server (either ``localhost'', or the value defined by the variable <nnrpdposthost in inn.conf>.

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 <DO_RNEWSPROGS in include/config.h> is defined and the command is any other word, then rnews will try to execute a program with that name in the directory <pathbin in inn.conf>/bin/rnews.libexec.

The batch will be fed into the program's standard input, and the standard output will be read back as input into rnews. If <DO_RNEWS_SAVE_BAD in include/config.h> is defined and 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 <pathincoming in inn.conf>/bad directory.

-h

If the ``-h'' flag is given, then rnews will log the Message-ID and host via syslog(3) for each article offered to the server. Logging will only be done if the value is not an empty string. If ``-h'' is not set, the environment variable <_ENV_UUCPHOST in include/paths.h> (typically $UU_MACHINE) will be examined for a similar string.

-N

Normally, if unpacking the input fails it is re-spooled to <pathincoming in inn.conf> 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.

-P

If the ``-P'' flag is used, then the articles will be sent to the specified port on the remote host.

-r

If the ``-r'' flag is used, then the articles will be sent to the named remote host instead of the default host.

-S

``-S'' flag is equivalent to ``-r'' flag.

-U

If the server is not available, the message is spooled into a new file created in the <pathincoming in inn.conf> 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).

-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).

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

Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.

inn.conf(5), innd(8).