RNews                                                                     RNews

NAME

        RNews - unbatch, store, and forward news articles.

SYNOPSIS

        RNews [-D number] [-x number] [-h] [-n] [-o] [-t directory] [-1]
              [-p] [-u decompressor] [newsfile] [<newsfile]

DESCRIPTION

        RNEWS is normally run by UUXQT and POSTNEWS to accept new news
        articles and post them to UUNEWS:. If the UULib:Sys file so
        indicates, a flag record is created in the UUSpool:Batch
        directory to queue the article to other hosts.

        The input to RNEWS is either a batch of articles, or a single
        news article. If it is a batch, it may be either compressed
        (using the standard Unix cunbatch format) or uncompressed.

        RNEWS is more efficient when newsfile is NOT standard input.

        If RNEWS fails, a terse error message is printed to stdout, and
        additional information is stored in UUSpool:Logfile. On failure,
        RNEWS returns thirty (30).

        On success, RNEWS returns zero (0).

OPTIONS

        -1:         If more than one newsgroup on the Newsgroup header
                    is kept locally, only store the first in the news
                    tree.

        -D number:  Set debugging level.

                    If "number" is 10 or more, temporary files created
                    by RNEWS are not removed.

        -h:         Do not use hardlinks to store articles which exist
                    in multiple newsgroups. Instead, create copies.

                    (Only used for Exec V37 and above.)

        -n:         Dummy. Process all articles, but do not store them in
                    news tree.

                    (Used in debugging.)

        -o:         Create and maintain NewsOverview style article summaries
                    in the news directories.

                    (Not yet implemented.)

        -p:         RNEWS is being called by POSTNEWS, and shouldn't run
                    any decompression program, even if specified by a
                    -u argument.

        -t dir:     Specify a directory where RNEWS temporary files are
                    stored. If this is set to RAM: or T:, then RNEWS can
                    be expected to execute much more quickly. However,
                    it will consume much more memory.

        -x number:  Set logging level. When "number" is one (1) or higher,
                    additional information is logged, at some cost in
                    additional processor and I/O time.

        -u decomp:  Specify the decompression program to be used by RNEWS.
                    RNEWS has the "compress" algorithm built-in, others
                    require an external program. Typically this will be
                    "gunzip".

                    (Only allowed for Exec v37 and above.)
NOTES

        Local postings are much more efficient if RNEWS is called with
        the -p argument. Otherwise, if the -u argument is also specified,
        RNEWS will attempt to decompress the input file prior to deciding
        that the input is a local post.

        The GZIP format is much more efficient in terms of data compression
        than the standard "compress" method used by default in AmigaUUCP
        (and by C News). This means that files may take a much shorter
        period of time to receive via UUCP. The advantage to the "compress"
        method is that RNEWS has that algorithm built-in. To use another
        decompressor, the -u argument is provided (for C News RELAYNEWS,
        the -d argument is used). The alternate decompressor will typically
        be GUNZIP, which can deal with "pack", "compress" and "gzip" format
        batches. To use this as your default, place the following line in your
        UULib:Config file:

                RNEWS   UUCP:C/RNews -u gunzip

        Obviously, GUNZIP must be in the search path, or an absolute path
        specified. Other default options may also be specified (such as
        -h and '-t t:'). Your performance will be best if your version
        of GUNZIP is pure (and made resident).

        RNEWS supports two methods of notifying external programs
        that new news has arrived:

            1. If a public message port named "T:NewsRdy" exists, then
               RNEWS will cause the associated signal of that message
               port to the task set for that message port (SigBit and
               SigTask).

            2. If UULib:Config has an entry for NewsReadyCmd then RNEWS
               will execute that program according to the following
               template:

                        "RUN NewsReadyCmd -x T:NewsRdy"

               where you replace "NewsReadyCmd" with the name of the
               program you wish to run. RNEWS will create a file named
               "T:NewsRdy" (if it does not already exist) prior to
               calling that program (the intent being to provide a
               mechanism for timestamping the last news arrival).

        These options are tried in order. They are not required, and
        most installations will not have a use for them.

        RNews does not process Control messages per se, but will file
        them into UUNews:Control if Control is listed as a valid newsgroup
        in your UULib:Newsgroups file. If Control is not listed as valid
        newsgroup, RNews will "drop control message on the floor" and not
        store them at all on your system. When RNews detects a Control
        message, a note is logged in UUSpool:Logfile.

REFERENCES

        BatchNews
        Config
        PostNews
        Sys
        UUXqt