INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)NAMEinn.conf - configuration data for InterNetNews programs
DESCRIPTION
The file <PREFIX specified with --prefix at config-
ure>/etc/inn.conf is used to determine various parameters.
The value of the INNCONF environment variable can be used
to specify another inn.conf file. Blank lines and lines
starting with a number sign (``#'') are ignored. All
other lines specify parameters that may be read, and
should be of the following form:
name : [optional whitespace] value
Everything after the whitespace and up to the end of the
line is taken as the value; multi-word values should not
be put in quotes. The case of names is significant --
server is not the same as Server or SERVER.
Some parameters specified in the file may be overridden by
environment variables, and some file parameters may be
used to mask real data, such as when hiding a cluster of
hosts behind a single electronic mail hostname. If the
same parameter is specified more than twice, the first one
is used for that parameter. The term ``default'' means
the case that the parameter is not defined in inn.conf.
Some parameters take boolean value. The value can be one
of ``true'', ``yes'' or ``on'' to turn on, and can be one
of ``false'', ``no'' or ``off'' to turn off. The case of
those value is not significant. The current set of param-
eters is as follows:
fromhost
This is the name of the host to use when building
the From header line. The default is the fully-
qualified domain name of the local host. The value
of the FROMHOST environment variable, if it exists,
overrides this.
moderatormailer
This names the default machine that contains for-
warding aliases for all moderated groups. It is
only used if the moderators(5) file doesn't exist,
or if the group is not matched by that file. The
value is interpreted as a pattern match; see moder-
ators(5). The default value is unset.
organization
This specifies what to put in the Organization
header if it is blank. The value of the ORGANIZA-
TION environment variable, if it exists, overrides
this. The default value is unset.
pathhost
This specifies how to name the local site when
building the Path header line. The default is the
1
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
fully-qualified domain name of the local host.
server This specifies the name of the default NNTP server.
If nnrpdposthost is not specified and UNIX domain
sockets are not supported, nnrpd(8) tries to hand
off locally-posted articles through an INET domain
socket to this server. actsync(8), nntpget(8) and
getlist(8) also use this value as the default
server to connect to. In the latter cases, the
value of the NNTPSERVER environment variable, if it
exists, overrides this. The default value is unset.
domain This should be the domain name of the local host.
It should not have a leading period, and it should
not be a full host address. It is used only if the
GetFQDN routine in libinn(3) cannot get the fully-
qualified domain name by using either the gethost-
name(2) or gethostbyname(3) calls. The check is
very simple; if either routine returns a name with
a period in it, then it is assumed to have the full
domain name. The default value is unset.
overviewmmap
If this is ``false'' then nnrpd, expire and make-
history will use regular file access to access
overviews and overview indices, otherwise it will
mmap(2) them. Setting this to ``true'' will give
better performance on most system, but some system
do have problems with mmap(2). This is boolean
value and the default value is ``true''.
storageapi
If this is true then all articles will be stored
through storage api and all articles are assumed to
be stored through storage api. This is boolean
value and the default is ``false''. To use storage
api, you need to edit storage.conf to determine
which method will be used. If storage api is used,
any overview database will be stored as unified
overview which is needed if nnrpd will be used. To
specify which index is used for unified overview,
you need to edit
<pathetc in inn.conf>/overview.ctl. If you run
innd as a feeder only, you do not need
overview.ctl.
maxforks
How many times to attempt a fork(2) before giving
up. The default value is 10.
maxartsize
The maximum size article (in bytes) that will be
accepted by the server. ``0'' allows any size. The
default value is ``1000000''.
2
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
nicekids
If set to anything other than ``0'', all child pro-
cesses will have this nice(1) value. The default
value is ``4''.
nicenewnews
If set to anything greater than ``0'', all nnrpd(8)
processes that use the ``NEWNEWS'' command will
nice(1) themselves to this value. This gives other
nnrpd processes a higher priority. The default
value is ``0'', which means that no change is made
from the ``nicekids'' value. Note that this value
will be ignored if it is set to a value lower than
``nicekids''.
mta This specifies the message transfer agent (mta) to
be used when mailing moderated postings and for use
for innmail. The article, with headers and an added
To: line, will be piped into this program and an
optional ``%s'' parameter will be replaced with the
moderator email address(es). See moderators(5) for
more info on the moderator email address(es). The
``mta'' option is compulsory. The default value is
unset, but this will note fatal error through sys-
log. This must be set.
mailcmd
This is the path/program to be used for mailing
reports and control messages. The default path is
pathbin/innmail.
verifycancels
Set this to ``true'' to verify that a poster is the
person doing the cancel. This can't be done if the
cancel arrives before the article does. This is
boolean value and the default is ``false''.
logcancelcomm
Set this to ``true'' to log ``ctlinnd cancel'' com-
mands to syslog. This is boolean value and the
default is ``false''.
wanttrash
Set this to ``true'' if you want to file articles
in unknown newsgroups into the ``junk'' newsgroup.
This is boolean value and the default is ``false''.
remembertrash
Set this to ``false'' if you don't want to record
rejected articles in history. This might cause
duplicate articles to be offered to you, so be
careful with it. This is boolean value and the
default is ``true''.
3
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
linecountfuzz
If this number is set to any number other than
``0'', the article linecounts are checked against
the Lines: header and the header is adjusted if it
is out by more than this amount. A suitable figure
is ``5'' which is the number of suitable .signature
lines + 1. The default value is ``0''.
logartsize
Should the article size be put into the article log
file. This is useful for statistics. This is
boolean value and the default is ``true''.
logipaddr
Should the IP address of a host be logged rather
than the entry in the Path: line. This is useful
for tracking forged postings. This is boolean
value and the default is ``true''.
logsitename
Should the site names be put into the article log
file. Those names are used by newsrequeue(8).
This is boolean value and the default is ``true''.
overviewname
What file name to use for storing overview data.
Defaults to ``.overview''.
extendeddbz
Should overview offset be put into dbz file. This
can be useful to gain overview performance, but
note that dbz file size will be three times. When-
ever extendeddbz is changed, dbz files should be
rebuilt with makehistory(8) like this.
makehistory -r -s `cat history | wc -l` -f history
If storageapi is ``false'', extendeddbz is ignored
and always treated as ``false''. extendeddbz is
available only if <DBZ_TAGGED_HASH in config.data>
is ``DONT''. This is boolean value and the default
is ``false''.
nnrpdoverstats
Should nnrpd overview statistics report be logged
to syslog. This can be useful to see overview per-
formance. This is boolean value and the default is
``false''.
storeonxref
Should storage api stores articles based on news-
group name in Xref header. If this is ``false'',
it stores articles based on newsgroup name in News-
groups header. This is boolean value and the
4
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
default is ``true''.
nnrpdcheckart
Should nnrpd check the existense of article before
responding nntp command. This can be useful, if
article are gone but their overview data still
exist. This is boolean value and the default is
``true''.
storemsgid
Should history store Message-ID in history(5), not
HASH format. storemsgid is available, if stor-
ageapi is ``false''. This is boolean value and the
default is ``true''.
usecontrolchan
Should use channel for control messages except can-
cel. You need to set up controlchan in newsfeeds
and ensure ``control.cancel'' exists in active, if
this is set to ``true''. This is boolean value and
the default is ``false''.
mergetogroups
Should merge ``to.*'' groups into ``to''. You need
to ensure ``to'' exists in active, if this is set
to ``true''. This is boolean value and the default
is ``false''.
keywords
Should keywords be generated in the overview
databases. Must be a boolean value. This is
boolean value and the default is ``false''. Chang-
ing this requires also changing
<pathetc in inn.conf>/overview.fmt and removing the
existing overview database. keywords is available
only if <KEYWORDS in config.data> is ``DO''.
keylimit
Maximum number of bytes allocated internally for
building keyword data. The default value is
``512''.
keyartlimit
Maximum size of a an article that will have key-
words generated for it. The default value is
``100000''.
keymaxwords
Maximum number of keywords that will be generated
for an article. The default value is ``250''.
refusecybercancels
Refuse articles that start with a Message-ID: of
``<cancel.''. This refusal is done before the
5
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
history check and the ID is not written to the his-
tory file. The preferred way to do this is to ask
your upstream feeder to alias out ``cyberspam'' in
the newsfeed to you. This can also be done using
the ``filter_messageid'' perl hook if perl filter-
ing is turned on, in which case this option can be
set to ``false''. This is boolean value and the
default is ``false''.
activedenable
If set to ``true'' then nnrpd(8) processes access
the active file through a separate process, using
UDP requests. The actived process will be started
automatically on innd startup. This saves a signif-
icant amount of memory and processing time for news
readers, particularly on startup. This is boolean
value and the default is ``false''.
activedupdate
This is the interval (in seconds) that actived
updates its in-memory copy of the active file.
activedport
The UDP port on which to send actived requests and
responses.
noreader
If set to ``false'' innd will fork a copy of nnrpd
for all connections from hosts not mentioned in
incoming.conf. You probably want to set this to
``true'' if you run a transit only server, or serve
nnrpd from inetd or daemon mode. This is a boolean
value and the default is ``false''.
pathnews
The news user home directory and sometimes the root
of the news hierarchy. The default value is unset,
but this will note fatal error through syslog.
pathbin
The path to the news binaries. The default value
is ``<pathnews>/bin''.
pathfilter
The path to the perl and TCL filters The default
value is ``<pathnews>/filter''.
pathcontrol
The path to the news control files. The files in
this directory represent the commands that will be
executed based on the Control: line in news arti-
cles. Be careful what you put in here, as it can
become a security risk. The default value is
``<pathnews>/control''.
6
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
pathdb The path to the database files used and changed by
the server. Files currently in this directory are:
active, history* and newsgroups. Historically,
this defaulted to pathetc, but is not split. The
default value is ``<pathnews>/db''.
pathetc
The news configuration files. The default value is
``<pathnews>/etc''.
pathrun
Files required while the server is running. This
includes locks and the channel socket. The default
value is ``<pathnews>/run''.
pathlog
Where the news log files are written. The default
value is ``<pathnews>/log''.
pathhttp
Where to place any HTML files (e.g: status report).
The default value is ``<pathlog>''.
pathtmp
Where the various programs place their tempfiles.
For security reasons this is not the same as the
system temporary files directory. It should (or
perhaps 'must') be on the same partition as the
incoming spool directory) (so rename(2) can work).
The default value is
``<PATH specified with --with-tmp-path at config-
ure>''.
pathspool
The root of the news spool hierarchy. This isn't
actually used at the moment. The default value is
``<pathnews>/spool''.
patharticles
Path where the news articles are stored. The
default value is ``<pathspool>/spool''.
pathoverview
Path to news overview files. Can be set to the same
as ``patharticles'' if ``overviewname'' is set to
something sensible. The default value is ``<path-
spool>/overview''.
pathoutgoing
Default path for outgoing feed files. The default
value is ``<pathspool>/outgoing''.
pathincoming
Path where incoming batched news is stored. The
7
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
default value is ``<pathspool>/incoming''.
patharchive
A path to store archived news. The default value
is ``<pathspool>/archive''.
pathuniover
A path to unified overview files. The default
value is ``<pathspool>/uniover''.
The following parameters are used only by nnrpd(8) to con-
trol high-volume posters via an exponential backoff algo-
rithm. These parameters are read at nnrpd(8) run time.
Exponential posting backoff works as follows. News clients
are indexed by IP number (or username, see backoffauth
below). Each time that a specific IP number posts a mes-
sage, the time of posting is stored (along with the previ-
ous sleep time, see below). After a configurable number
of posts in a configurable period of time, nnrpd(8) will
activate posting backoff, and begin to sleep for increas-
ing periods of time before actually posting anything.
Posts will still get through, but at an increasingly
reduced rate.
The new sleep time is computed based on the difference in
time between the last posting and the current posting,
assuming that backoff has been activated.
If this difference is less than backoffpostfast , the new
sleep time will be 1 + (previous sleep time * backoffk ).
If this difference is less than backoffpostslow, but
greater than backoffpostfast, then the new sleep time will
equal the previous sleep time.
If this difference is greater than backoffpostslow then
the new sleep time is zero and the number of postings for
this IP number is reset to zero.
Here are the parameters that control exponential posting
backoff:
backoffk
An integer value representing the amount to multi-
ply the previous sleep time by. A value of 2 works
to double the sleep time for each excessive post.
The default value is ``1''.
backoffpostfast
Postings from the same IP which arrive in less than
this amount of time (in seconds) will trigger
increasing sleeptime in the backoff algorithm. The
8
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
default value is ``0''.
backoffpostslow
Postings from the same IP which arrive in greater
than this amount of time (in seconds) will reset
the backoff algorithm. Another way to look at this
constant is to compute 86400/ backoffpostslow which
will give you the maximum number of articles per
day that you will allow users to post. The default
value is ``1''.
backofftrigger
This many postings are allowed before the backoff
algorithm is triggered. The default value is
``10000''.
backoffdb
Pathname to a directory (must be writable by news)
that is to contain the backoff database. There is
no default for this parameter, you must provide an
existing and writable pathname value or users will
not be able to post. The default value is unset.
backoffauth
This is a boolean value. If on, posting backoffs
are indexed on a per user basis instead of a per IP
basis. You must be using authentication in nnrpd(8)
for the ``true'' value of this parameter to have
any meaning. This is boolean value and the default
is ``false''.
readertrack
This is a boolean value. If on, the article track-
ing system is enabled for client reading/posting.
See the nnrpd.track(5) man page for details. This
is boolean value and the default is ``false''.
strippostcc
This is a boolean value. If on, To:, Cc: and Bcc:
lines are stripped from local posts through
nnrpd(8). This is aimed mainly at stopping abuse
of posting to moderated newsgroups, whereby those
headers are added by the client and honoured by the
mailer when mailed to the moderator. This is
boolean value and the default is ``false''.
nnrpperlauth
This enables nnrpd(8) to authenticate reader with
external perl hook. If this is enabled, normal
authentication with nnrp.access(5) will not be
used. This is boolean value and the default is
``false''.
The following parameters are used only by innd.
9
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
pathalias
This specifies the name prepended before pathhost,
if it is not appeared in the Path header line. If
this is not specified, nothing is prepended before
pathhost. The default value is unset.
hiscachesize
If this is set to a non-zero number then a hash of
recently received Message-ID's is kept in this mem-
ory to save on history lookups. The cache is only
used for incoming newsfeeds, so a high value isn't
necessarily useful unless you have incoming feeds
that are badly delayed. The value is the amount of
memory to dedicate to the lookup cache in kilo-
bytes. It is generally useful to have memory allo-
cated to history cache if dbz mmaping is turned on.
A useful value is around '256', assuming you have
more than one incoming newsfeed. The default value
is ``0''.
xrefslave
If this is true, innd will use the information in
the Xref: header for replication. And if this is
true, nnrpdposthost should be set to hand articles
to the master server. This is boolean value and
the default is ``false''.
nnrpdposthost
If this is specified, nnrpd(8) and rnews pass arti-
cles to the specified host. This should be set, if
xrefslave is ``true''. The default value is unset.
nnrpdpostport
The port to connect to when nnrpdposthost is used.
The default value is ``119''.
wireformat
If this is true then innd will write articles in
wire format. Wire format articles are stored with
a \r\n at the end of each line and with periods at
the beginning of lines doubled. When used with
applications that understand wire format, this can
be considerably more efficent. If storageapi is
``true'', wireformat is discarded and articles are
always stored in wire format. This is boolean
value and the default is ``false''.
writelinks
If this is true innd will write all the crossposts
of an article to the history file, else it will
write just the first. This can be useful on
servers without readers that don't run crosspost
and don't link crossposts. If the server does link
crossposts, via either innd itself or a crosspost
10
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
feed, this should be set to ``true'' or articles
will not be expired properly. If storageapi is
``true'', writelinks is discarded. This is boolean
value and the default is ``true''.
status If this is '0' or 'false', then status monitoring
will be disabled by default. Otherwise, it would
be how often to report status statistics, in sec-
onds. If turned on statistics will be logged to
syslog. The default value is ``0''.
timer If this is ``0'' or ``false'', then performance
monitoring will be disabled by default. Otherwise,
it would be how often to report performance statis-
tics, in seconds. If turned on statistics will be
logged to syslog. The default value is ``0''.
peertimeout
How long (in seconds) an innd incoming channel can
be inactive before innd closes the channel. The
default value is ``3600''.
readerswhenstopped
If this is ``false'', readers are still allowed to
connect even when the server is paused or throt-
tled. This is boolean value and the default is
``false''.
allownewnews
Allow use of the ``NEWNEWS'' command by clients.
Allowing this can be a performance problem on the
server, but is recommended by RFC 977. This is
boolean value and the default is ``true''.
chaninacttime
The time (in seconds) to wait between noticing
inactive channels. The default value is ``600''.
chanretrytime
How many seconds to wait before a channel restarts.
The default value is ``300''.
maxconnections
The maximum number of incoming NNTP connections.
The default value is ``50''.
artcutoff
Articles older than this number of days are
dropped. The default value is 14 days.
nntplinklog
Should we put nntplink info (filename) into the
log. This is boolean value and the default is
``false''.
11
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
nntpactsync
How many articles to process before logging NNTP
activity. The default value is ``200''.
badiocount
How many read/write failures until a channel is put
to sleep or closed. The default value is ``5''.
pauseretrytime
Wait for this many seconds between noticing inac-
tive channels. The default value is ``300''.
blockbackoff
A multiplier (in seconds) for sleep in ``EWOULD-
BLOCK'' writes. The default value is ``120''.
icdsynccount
How many article writes between active and history
file updates. The default value is ``10''.
bindaddress
Which interface IP address innd should bind to.
Must be in dotted-quad format (nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn).
If set to ``all'' or not set at all, innd defaults
to listening on all interfaces. The value of the
INND_BIND_ADDRESS environment variable, if it
exists, overrides this. The default value is
unset.
sourceaddress
Which local IP address to bind for outgoing NNTP
sockets (used by innxmit among possibly others).
Must be in dotted-quad format (nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn) If
set to ``all'' or not set at all, the operating
system which choose the source IP address for out-
going NNTP connections. The default value is
unset.
port Which TCP port innd should listen on. The default
value is ``119'' - the standard nntp port.
The following parameters are used only by nnrpd(8) ( or
perhaps inews ) when accepting postings from clients:
checkincludedtext
If set to ``true'' then local postings must have
under 50% inclusion (">") lines. This is boolean
value and the default is ``false''.
localmaxartsize
The maximum article size (in bytes) for locally
posted articles. The default value is ``1000000''.
12
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
mimeversion
If this parameter is present, then nnrpd(8) will
add the necessary MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions) headers to all any articles that do not
have a Mime-Version header. This parameter speci-
fies the MIME version, and should normally be
``1.0''. The default value is unset.
mimecontenttype
If MIME headers are being added, this parameter
specifies the value of the Content-Type header.
The default value is ``text/plain; charset=US-
ASCII.''
mimeencoding
If MIME headers are being added, this parameter
specifies the value of the Content-Transfer-Encod-
ing header. The default value is ``7bit.''
spoolfirst
If this is true then nnrpd will spool new articles
without attempting to send them to innd first. If
this is false then nnrpd will spool new articles
only after receiving an error trying to send them
to innd. Setting this to true can be useful if you
want nnrpd to respond to the client as fast as pos-
sible, however, nnrpd will not report articles that
are not accepted by innd to the client if they are
spool. And the posted article is never handed to
innd by nnrpd, if this is true. ``rnews -U''
should be used to pass that article to innd. This
is boolean value and the default is ``false''.
complaints
If this is set, then it contains the value of the
X-Complaints-To: header that will be added to all
posts. If not, then this defaults to the newsmas-
ter's e-mail address.
articlemmap
If this is false then nnrpd will use regular file
access to access articles, otherwise it will mmap()
the articles. Setting this to true will give bet-
ter performance on most systems, but some systems
do have problems with mmap(). This is boolean
value and the default is ``false''.
clienttimeout
How long (in seconds) an nnrpd can be inactive
before it exits. The default value is ``600''.
The following flags are only used by the startup script
``rc.news''.
13
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
decnetdomain
Use this value as the domain to be used for clients con-
necting via DECNET. Support for this is only compiled
into INN if ``AF_DECnet'' is defined and compile time.
The default value is unset.
innflags
The flags to pass to INN on startup. See the
innd(8) man page for details. The default value is
unset.
doinnwatch
If set to ``false'' then do not start innwatch(8).
This is boolean value and the default is ``true''.
innwatchsleeptime
How long (in seconds) an innwatch will be sleep
before it checks. The default value is ``600''.
pgpverify
If set to ``true'' then enables pgp verification
for handling control messages except cancel. This
is boolean value and the default is ``false''.
controlfailnotice
If set to ``true'' and usecontrolchan is set to
``false'', then if there is a problem processing
control message, it is reported to the administra-
tor through mail. If set to ``false'' or usecon-
trolchan is set to ``true'', nothing is reported.
This is boolean value and the default is ``false''.
logcycles
How many logs does news.daily(8) ( scanlogs(8) )
keep before it overwrites. The default value is
``3''.
innwatchpauseload
Load average (* 100) at which innd should be paused
by innwatch(8) with default innwatch.ctl(5). The
default value is ``1500''.
innwatchhiload
Load average (* 100) at which innd should be throt-
tled by innwatch(8) with default innwatch.ctl(5).
The default value is ``2000''.
innwatchloload
Load average (* 100) at which to restart innd
(pause/throttle undone) by innwatch(8) with default
innwatch.ctl(5). The default value is ``1000''.
14
INN.CONF(5)INN.CONF(5)
innwatchspoolspace
Space, in inndf(8) output units, at which to throt-
tle innd on patharticles and pathoverview by
innwatch(8) with default innwatch.ctl(5). The
default value is ``8000''.
innwatchbatchspace
Space, in inndf(8) output units, at which to throt-
tle innd on pathoutgoing by innwatch(8) with
default innwatch.ctl(5). The default value is
``800''.
innwatchlibspace
Space, in inndf(8) output units, at which to throt-
tle innd on pathdb by innwatch(8) with default
innwatch.ctl(5). The default value is ``25000''.
innwatchspoolnodes
Space, in inndf(8) output units, at which to throt-
tle innd on patharticles by innwatch(8) with
default innwatch.ctl(5). The default value is
``200''.
docnfsstat
If set to ``true'' then start cnfsstat. This is
boolean value and the default is ``false''.
Note that this file can be identical on all machines in an
organization.
EXAMPLE
fromhost: foo.com
moderatormailer: %s@uunet.uu.net
organization: Foo, Incorporated
#pathhost -- use FQDN.
server: news.foo.com
domain: foo.com
This file is intended to be fairly static; any changes
made to it are typically not reflected until a program
restarts.
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNet-
News. This is revision 1.1.2.1, dated 1999/06/12.
SEE ALSOhistory(5), libinn(3), moderators(5), makehistory(8),
news.daily(8), newsrequeue(8), nnrpd(8), rnews(8), scan-
logs(8).
15
