NNTPSEND(8)

NAME
nntpsend - send Usenet articles to remote site

SYNOPSIS
nntpsend [ -d ] [ -p ] [ -r ] [ -S ] [ -s size ] [ -t timeout ] [ -T timelimit ] [ sitename fqdn ] ...

DESCRIPTION
Nntpsend is a front-end that invokes innxmit(1) to send Usenet articles to a remote NNTP site.

The sites to be fed may be specified by giving sitename fqdn pairs on the command line. If no such pairs are given, nntpsend defaults to the information given in the nntpsend.ctl(5) config file.

The sitename should be the name of the site as specified in the newsfeeds(5) file. The fqdn should be the hostname or IP address of the remote site.

An innxmit is launched for sites with queued news. All innxmit processes are spawned in the background and the script waits for them all to finish before returning. Output is sent to the file /var/log/news/nntpsend.log. In order to keep from overwhelming the local system, nntpsend waits five seconds before spawned each child. The flag ``-a'' is always given as a flag to innxmit.

Nntpsend expects that the batchfile for a site is named /var/spool/news/out.going/sitename. To prevent batchfile corruption, shlock(1) is used to ``lock'' these files.

The ``-p'', ``-r'', ``-S'', ``-t'', and ``-T'' flags are passed on to the child innxmit program. Note that if the ``-p'' flag is used then no connection is made and no articles are fed to the remote site. It is useful to have cron(8) invoke nntpsend with this flag in case a site cannot be reached for an extended period of time.

If the ``-s'' flag is used, then shrinkfile(1) will be invoked to perform a tail truncation on the batchfile and the flag will be passed to it.

When sitename fqdn pairs are given on the command line, any flags given on the command completely describe how innxmit and shrinkfile operate. When no such pairs are given on the command line, then the information found in nntpsend.ctl becomes the default flags for that site. Any flags given on the command line override the default flags for the site.

For example, with the following control file:
    nsavax:erehwon.nsavax.gov::-S -t60
    group70:group70.org::
    walldrug:walldrug.com:1m:-T1800 -t300

The command:
    nntpsend
will result in the following:
    Sitename	Truncation	Innxmit flags
    nsavax	(none)	-a -S -t60
    group70	(none)	-a -t180
    walldrug	1m	-a -T1800 -t300

The command:
    nntpsend -d -T1200
will result in the following:
    Sitename	Truncation	Innxmit flags
    nsavax	(none)	-a -d -S -T1200 -t60
    group70	(none)	-a -d -T1200 -t180
    walldrug	1m	-a -d -T1200 -t300

The command:
    nntpsend -s 5m -T1200 nsavax erehwon.nsavax.gov group70 group70.org
will result in the following:
    Sitename	Truncation	Innxmit flags
    nsavax	5m	-a -T1200 -t180
    group70	5m	-a -T1200 -t180

Remember that ``-a'' is always given, and ``-t'' defaults to 180.

HISTORY
Written by Landon Curt Noll <chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.

SEE ALSO
innxmit(1), newsfeeds(5), nntpsend.ctl(5), shrinkfile(1).