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Annotation of 43BSD/contrib/nntp/common/README, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1:      This directory contains lotsa good stuff common to both
        !             2: the news server, support, and client programs.  The short of it is:
        !             3: 
        !             4: conf.h         Configuration information for NNTP server,
        !             5:                support, and client programs.
        !             6: 
        !             7: response_codes.h  These are the #define's of the numeric response
        !             8:                codes in NNTP.  This shouldn't change.
        !             9: 
        !            10: clientlib.c    This file is a collection of routines which clients
        !            11:                can use to talk to the NNTP server.  The code is
        !            12:                well documented, but briefly, the functions are
        !            13: 
        !            14:                        server_init     Open connection to server
        !            15:                        getsocket       Get a stream socket
        !            16:                        get_server      Get line from server
        !            17:                        put_server      Send line to server
        !            18:                        close_server    Close connection
        !            19: 
        !            20:                It is worth noting that these routines use
        !            21:                buffered I/O, and leave the external variables
        !            22:                "ser_rd_fp" and "ser_wr_fp" (server read/write
        !            23:                file pointers, respectively) floating around
        !            24:                for use by programs which need them.
        !            25: 
        !            26:                In any event, you shouldn't need to screw with
        !            27:                these routines.
        !            28: 
        !            29: conf.h
        !            30: ======
        !            31: 
        !            32:      Unfortunately, you will need to screw with this to get both
        !            33: the server, support, and client programs running.  More unfortunately,
        !            34: "rrn" has its own ideas of where to look for config information,
        !            35: so there is some duplication of effort here.  With luck, it won't
        !            36: be too great.
        !            37: 
        !            38:      This is sort of a walk through conf.h, and what parameters
        !            39: need to be changed.  The #defines's default value is listed in
        !            40: parenthesis after it's name.  Manual entries mentioned here are
        !            41: in the "doc" directory of the NNTP distribution.
        !            42: 
        !            43:      First are some compile-time type options, for compiling in
        !            44: certain code.  The options should be "#undef"ed if you don't want
        !            45: them, and "#defined" if you do.
        !            46: 
        !            47: ALONE          (undefined)
        !            48: 
        !            49:      Defines whether we're a stand alone version of the server, or
        !            50: whether we're running under inetd.  I suggest you run under inetd.
        !            51: 
        !            52: FASTFORK       (undefined)
        !            53: 
        !            54:      If we're ALONE, then this option tells us not to read the
        !            55: active file when we fork, but rather for the parent daemon to re-read
        !            56: it every READINTVL (below) seconds.  This should make forking off children
        !            57: a little bit faster.
        !            58: 
        !            59: LOG            (undefined)
        !            60: 
        !            61:      When LOG is defined, we log copious amounts of information via
        !            62: syslog to a special file.  One a busy system like ucbvax, this produces
        !            63: about 100K of log information per day.  Look in ../src/SYSLOG to
        !            64: get an idea of what will be logged.  You can use the scripts
        !            65: provided in ../support to produce statistics on your NNTP server if
        !            66: you run with LOG.
        !            67: 
        !            68: BSD_42         (undefined)
        !            69: 
        !            70:      If you have a 4.2 BSD system (as opposed to a 4.3 BSD system),
        !            71: this needs to be defined.  Really it does only two things: changes
        !            72: the log level to be compatible with 4.2, and automatically defines
        !            73: DBM (below).  If, somehow, you already have ndbm, then you should
        !            74: kill the lines which auto-define it.
        !            75: 
        !            76: DBM            (undefined)
        !            77: 
        !            78:      If you don't have the ndbm routines in your standard library (i.e.,
        !            79: if you're not running 4.3 BSD), you'll have to define this; all it
        !            80: does is replace the ndbm calls with the earlier, unwieldy dbm calls.
        !            81: 
        !            82: DOMAIN         (undefined)
        !            83: 
        !            84:      If domain is defined, it specifies that whatever it is defined
        !            85: as will be appended to host names; this is for posting news when
        !            86: your hostname() doesn't return your fully-qualified domain name.
        !            87: If your hostname system call does return a fully-qualified name,
        !            88: simply undef DOMAIN.
        !            89: 
        !            90: SERVER_HOST    ("foo")         <- you better change this!
        !            91: 
        !            92:      ... is the machine which various programs (mini-inews, rrn,
        !            93: getactive, etc.) should connect to for news; that is, it is the machine
        !            94: which will be running the news server.
        !            95: 
        !            96: POSTER         ("nobody")
        !            97: 
        !            98:      If your nntpd is run as root, nntpd will attempt to setuid()
        !            99: and setgid() to the uid and gid of whoever POSTER is defined as.
        !           100: If your nntpd isn't running as root (i.e., it might run as "usenet"),
        !           101: either undefine this, or define it to be a user which exists but
        !           102: is not used -- the setuid will fail in any event.
        !           103: 
        !           104: LOG_FACILITY   (LOG_DAEMON)
        !           105: 
        !           106:      This is of concern only if you have 4.3 syslog.  If you do,
        !           107: and you have LOG defined above (which produces huge amounts of
        !           108: log info), you may want to define this to be something which can
        !           109: be redirected in /etc/syslog.conf to a special file -- LOG_LOCAL7
        !           110: is what we use on ucbvax.
        !           111: 
        !           112: BUGS_TO                ("Phil Lapsley ([email protected], ...!ucbvax!phil)")
        !           113: 
        !           114:      This person is mentioned in the output of the HELP command.
        !           115: It should probably be left to me, unless you hack on the server.
        !           116: 
        !           117: Next, we have some common files:
        !           118: 
        !           119: ACTIVE_FILE    ("/usr/spool/news/lib/active")
        !           120: 
        !           121:      Specifies the location of the "active" file.
        !           122: 
        !           123: ACCESS_FILE    ("/usr/spool/news/lib/nntp_access")
        !           124: 
        !           125:      Specifies the location of the remote access file.
        !           126:      See the manual entry, nntpd.8c, for a better explanation.
        !           127:      A sample access file is in ../support/access_file.
        !           128: 
        !           129: HISTORY_FILE   ("/usr/spool/news/lib/history")
        !           130: 
        !           131:      Specifies the location of the "history" file.
        !           132:      This is used with NEWNEWS and ARTICLE/HEAD/BODY/STAT when
        !           133:      given an message-id argument.
        !           134: 
        !           135: SPOOLDIR       ("/usr/spool/news/")
        !           136: 
        !           137:      This is the directory where news is stored.  Note that
        !           138:      the trailing / is important.
        !           139: 
        !           140: INEWS          ("/usr/spool/news/lib/inews")
        !           141: 
        !           142:      Specifies the location of inews, for posting.  Note that this
        !           143:      is not the same as the pseudo-inews in the inews directory
        !           144:      supplied with the NNTP distribution.  Your inews may be
        !           145:      in a different place, such as /usr/bin/inews.
        !           146: 
        !           147: RNEWS          ("/usr/bin/rnews")
        !           148: 
        !           149:      Specifies the location of the rnews program which is used
        !           150:      for dealing with news received from other systems via the
        !           151:      IHAVE command; it is often a link to inews.
        !           152: 
        !           153: STAT_FILE      ("/usr/spool/news/lib/mgdstats")
        !           154: 
        !           155:      When the support program "mkgrdates" is run, it keep stats
        !           156:      in a file to tell whether or not to rebuild its database
        !           157:      the next time it is run; this is the file the stats are kept
        !           158:      in.  Needless to say, it must be writable by whatever user-id
        !           159:      runs "mkgrdates".  See the manual entry "mkgrdates.8c" for
        !           160:      more info.
        !           161: 
        !           162: NGDATE_FILE    ("/usr/spool/news/lib/groupdates")
        !           163: 
        !           164:      Specifies the location of the newsgroup creation date file.
        !           165:      See the manual entry for both nntpd.8c and mkgrdates.8c for
        !           166:      more info.
        !           167: 
        !           168: READINTVL      (600 seconds)
        !           169: 
        !           170:      If the server is compiled with FASTFORK and ALONE, then this number
        !           171:      tells how often to check if the active file has changed (and to
        !           172:      read it in if it has changed since the last time).  See README
        !           173:      in the "server" directory of the NNTP distribution.  If you are
        !           174:      not compiled with FASTFORK and ALONE (hint: you're not going to),
        !           175:      don't worry about this.
        !           176: 

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