EXPIRE(8)EXPIRE(8)NAMEexpire - Usenet article and history expiration program
SYNOPSISexpire [ -c ] [ -D dir ] [ -d dir ] [ -e ] [ -f file ] [
-g file ] [ -h file ] [ -i ] [ -k ] [ -l ] [ -N ] [ -n ] [
-p ] [ -q ] [ -r reason ] [ -s ] [ -t ] [ -u file ] [ -v
level ] [ -w number ] [ -x ] [ -Z file ] [ -z file ] [
expire.ctl ]
DESCRIPTION
Expire scans the history(5) text file <pathdb in
inn.conf>/history and uses the information recorded in it
to purge old news articles. If you have turned on the
storage manager with the 'storageapi' in inn.conf(5) and
set up overview.ctl(5), it also purges old unified
overview data. And if the article is stored by storage
api and the storage method has self expire functionality,
the control file is ignored except remember line for that
article by default. In this case, expire probes the arti-
cle to see if it still exists. If it does not exist,
expire purges the relevant entries (history and unified
overview). To disable this, use the ``-N'' flag.
OPTIONS-c If articles are stored by storage api, articles are
normally expired by storage class base. If the
``-c'' flag is used, articles are expired by normal
way (newsgroup base). Note that if the unified
overview entry of an article is not stored, the
article is expired by storage class base.
-D If the ``-D'' flag is used, then the new unified
overview files are created in the specified direc-
tory, dir. This is useful when the filesystem does
not have sufficient space to hold both the old and
new unified overview files. When this flag is
used, expire leaves the server paused and creates a
zero-length file named after the new unified
overview file, with an extension of ``.done'' to
indicate that it has successfully completed the
expiration. The calling script should install the
new unified overview files and un-pause the server.
-d If the ``-d'' flag is used, then the new history
file and database is created in the specified
directory, dir. This is useful when the filesystem
does not have sufficient space to hold both the old
and new history files. When this flag is used,
expire leaves the server paused and creates a zero-
length file named after the new history file, with
an extension of ``.done'' to indicate that it has
successfully completed the expiration. The calling
script should install the new history file and un-
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pause the server. The ``-r'' flag should be used
with this flag.
-e If the ``-e'' flag is used, then as soon as the
first cross posting of the article expires, all
copies of it are removed. Note that you cannot use
both ``-e'' and ``-k'' flag at the same time. If
you turn on 'storageapi' in inn.conf(5) and don't
use both ``-e'' and ``-k'' flag, ``-e'' flag is set
internally.
-f To specify an alternate history file, use the
``-f'' flag. This flag is valid if ``-d'' flag is
used together, and the output will be written to
this file. The default without ``-f'' flag is
``history.''
-g If the ``-g'' flag is given, then a one-line sum-
mary equivalent to the output of ``-v 1'' and pre-
ceded by the current time, will be appended to the
specified file.
-h To specify an alternate input text history file,
use the ``-h'' flag. Expire uses the old dbz(3)
database to determine the size of the new one. If
``-d'' flag is not used together, and the output
file name will be with an extension of ``.n.'' The
default without ``-h'' flag is
<pathdb in inn.conf>/history.
-i To ignore the old database, use the ``-i'' flag.
-k If this flag is used then articles are removed when
they have been expired from all the groups they
appear in. Note that you cannot use both ``-e''
and ``-k'' flag at the same time. If you turn on
'storageapi' in inn.conf(5) and don't use both
``-e'' and ``-k'' flag, ``-e'' flag is set inter-
nally.
-l Expire normally just unlinks each file if it should
be expired. If the ``-l'' flag is used, then all
articles after the first one are treated as if they
could be symbolic links to the first one. In this
case, the first article will not be removed as long
as any other cross-posts of the article remain. If
``-e'' flag is used together, ``-l'' flag is
ignored.
-N If the article is stored by storage api and the
storage method has self expire functionality, then
the control file is ignored for that article by
default. If the ``-N'' flag is used, expire still
uses the control file in this case.
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EXPIRE(8)EXPIRE(8)-n If innd is not running, use the ``-n'' flag and
expire will not send the ``pause'' or ``go'' com-
mands. (For more details on the commands, see
ctlinnd(8)). Note that expire only needs exclusive
access for a very short time -- long enough to see
if any new articles arrived since it first hit the
end of the file, and to rename the new files to the
working files.
-p Expire makes its decisions on the time the article
arrived, as found in the history file. This means
articles are often kept a little longer than with
other expiration programs that base their decisions
on the article's posting date. To use the arti-
cle's posting date, use the ``-p'' flag.
-q Expire normally complains about articles that are
posted to newsgroups not mentioned in the active
file. To suppress this action, use the ``-q''
flag.
-r Expire normally sends a ``pause'' command to the
local innd(8) daemon when it needs exclusive access
to the history file, using the string ``Expiring''
as the reason. To give a different reason, use the
``-r'' flag. The process ID will be appended to
the reason. When expire is finished and the new
history file is ready, it sends a ``go'' command.
-s If the ``-s'' flag is used, then expire will print
a summary when it exits showing the approximate
number of kilobytes used by all deleted articles.
-t If the ``-t'' flag is used, then expire will gener-
ate a list of the files that should be removed on
its standard output, and the new history file will
be left in history.n and history.n.dir , his-
tory.n.index history.n.hash. This flag be useful
for debugging when used with the ``-n'' and ``-s''
flags. Note that if the ``-f'' flag is used, then
the name specified with that flag will be used
instead of history.
-u If the ``-u'' flag is used, then expired article's
names are appended to the specified file. This
files can be used as a input for expireindex(8).
See also the description of delayrm in
news.daily(8).
-v The ``-v'' flag is used to increase the verbosity
of the program, generating messages to standard
output. The level should be a number, where higher
numbers result in more output. Level one will
print totals of the various actions done (not valid
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EXPIRE(8)EXPIRE(8)
if a new history file is not written), level two
will print report on each individual file, while
level five results in more than one line of output
for every line processed.
-w Use the ``-w'' flag to ``warp'' time so that expire
thinks it is running at some time other then the
current time. The value should be a signed float-
ing point number of the number of days to use as
the offset.
-x If the ``-x'' flag is used, then expire will not
create any new history files. This is most useful
when combined with the ``-n'', ``-s'', and ``-t''
flags to see how different expiration policies
would change the amount of disk space used.
-z If the ``-z'' flag is used, then articles are not
removed, but their names are appended to the speci-
fied file. See the description of delayrm in
news.daily(8).
-Z If the ``-Z'' flag is used, then information about
the lowmarks for each group are stored in the file.
This file can then be used with ctlinnd (the ``low-
mark'' command) to adjust the active file.
If a filename is specified, it is taken as the control
file and parsed according to the rules in expire.ctl(5).
A single dash (``-'') may be used to read the file from
standard input. If no file is specified, the file
<pathetc in inn.conf>/expire.ctl is read.
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNet-
News. This is revision 1.1.2.1, dated 1999/06/12.
SEE ALSOctlinnd(8), dbz(3), expire.ctl(5), history(5),
inn.conf(5), innd(8), inndcomm(3).
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