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INND(8)							  INND(8)

NAME
       innd, inndstart - InterNetNews daemon

SYNOPSIS
       innd  [ -a ] [ -c days ] [ -C ] [ -d ] [ -f ] [ -H count ]
       [ -i count ] [ -IIP_address ] [ -l size ] [ -L ] [ -m mode
       ] [ -n flag ] [ -o count ] [ -pfd_desc ] [ -Pport ] [ -r ]
       [ -s ] [ -t timeout ] [ -T count ] [ -u ] [ -X seconds ] [
       -Z ]

       inndstart [ flags ]

DESCRIPTION
       Innd,  the  InterNetNews daemon, handles all incoming NNTP
       feeds.  It reads the active(5), newsfeeds(5),  and  incom-
       ing.conf(5)  files  into	 memory.   It then opens the NNTP
       port to receive articles from remote sites (see the ``-p''
       option), If <HAVE_UNIX_DOMAIN_SOCKETS in include/config.h>
       is defined, a Unix-domain stream socket to  receive  arti-
       cles  from  local processes such as nnrpd(8) and rnews(1),
       and a Unix-domain datagram socket for use  by  ctlinnd(8).
       If  <HAVE_UNIX_DOMAIN_SOCKETS  in include/config.h> is not
       defined, named pipes are used instead.  Ctlinnd(8) is used
       to  direct the server to perform certain actions.  It also
       opens the history(5) database and two log files to replace
       its standard output and standard error.

       Once  the  files	 and sockets have been opened, innd waits
       for connections and data to be ready on its ports by using
       select(2)  and non-blocking I/O.	 If no data is available,
       then it will  flush  its	 in-core  data	structures.   The
       default	number	of  seconds to timeout before flushing is
       set as <DEFAULT_TIMEOUT in  config.data>	 (typically  300)
       seconds.

       If  innd	 gets an ENOSPC error (see intro(2)) while trying
       to write the active file, an article file, or the  history
       database,  it  will  send  itself  a ``throttle'' command.
       This will also happen if it gets too many I/O errors while
       writing to any files.

OPTIONS
       -a     By  default,  if	a  host	 if  not mentioned in the
	      incoming.conf file, then the connection  is  handed
	      off to nnrpd.  If the ``-a'' flag is used, then any
	      host can connect and transfer articles.

       -c     innd rejects articles that are too old.  While this
	      behavior can be controlled by the history database,
	      occasionally a site dumps a batch of very old  news
	      back  onto  the  network.	  Use  the ``-c'' flag to
	      specify a cutoff.	 For example ``-c21'' will reject
	      any  articles  that  were	 posted more than 21 days
	      ago.  A value of zero will suppress this check. The

								1

INND(8)							  INND(8)

	      default  is  14  days,  but can be changed with the
	      ``artcutoff'' option in inn.conf(5)

       -C     If the ``-C'' flag is used, then innd  will  accept
	      and  propagate  but  not actually process cancel or
	      supersedes messages.  This is  intended  for  sites
	      concerned	 about	abuse  of cancels and wish to use
	      another cancel mechanism with  greater  authentica-
	      tion.

       -d -f  Innd normally puts itself into the background, sets
	      its standard output and error  to	 log  files,  and
	      disassociates  itself from the terminal.	Using the
	      ``-d'' flag instructs the server to  not	do  this,
	      while  using the ``-f'' flag just leaves the server
	      running the foreground.

       -H -T -X
	      The ``-H'', ``-T'', and ``-X''  flags  control  the
	      number  of  connects per minute allowed.	This code
	      is meant to protect  your	 server	 from  newsreader
	      clients  that  make too many connects per minute to
	      your server.  You should probably not use it unless
	      you are having a problem.	 The table used for these
	      checks is fixed at 128 entries and  is  used  as	a
	      ring.   The size was chosen to make calculating the
	      index easy and to be pretty sure you won't run  out
	      of  space.   In  practice,  it is doubtful that you
	      will use even half the table at any given moment.

	      The ``-H'' flag limits the number of times  a  host
	      is allowed to connect to the server per ``-X'' sec-
	      onds.  The default is 2.

	      The ``-T'' flag limits the total number of incoming
	      connects	to  innd per ``-X'' seconds.  The maximum
	      value is 128.  The default is 60.

	      The ``-X'' sets the number of seconds used  by  the
	      ``-H'' and ``-T'' flags.	A value of zero turns off
	      checking.	 The default is 0.

       -i     To limit the number of incoming  NNTP  connections,
	      use the ``-i'' flag.  A value of zero will suppress
	      this check.  The default is 50, if the ``maxconnec-
	      tions''  option  in  inn.conf(5)	is not specified.
	      The ``maxconnections''  option  in  inn.conf(5)  is
	      changed with this value.

       -I     This  option  allows you to bind innd to a specific
	      interface IP address.  The IP address  must  be  in
	      dotted  quad (nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn) format. See also the
	      ``bindaddress'' option in inn.conf(5)

								2

INND(8)							  INND(8)

       -l     To limit the size of an  article,	 use  the  ``-l''
	      flag.   If this flag is used, then any article big-
	      ger than size bytes will be rejected.  The  default
	      is  1000000L  bytes.   Checking  can be disabled by
	      using a value of zero.

       -L     If the ``-L'' flag is used, then innd will not cre-
	      ate  the	links  for cross posted articles.  A feed
	      only type of site could use this option to  improve
	      performance.   Or it can be combined with a channel
	      feed to the crosspost(8) program to move the  delay
	      associated  with creating the links out of the innd
	      processing loop.

       -m     To start the server in a paused or throttled  state
	      (see  ctlinnd(8))	 use  the  ``-m'' flag to set the
	      initial running mode.  The  argument  should  start
	      with  a  single  letter  g, p, or t, to emulate the
	      ``go,''  ``pause,''   or	 ``throttle''	commands,
	      respectively.

       -n     The ``-n'' flag specifies whether or not pausing or
	      throttling the server should  also  disable  future
	      newsreading  processes.  A value of ``y'' will make
	      newreaders act as the server, a value of ``n'' will
	      allow  newsreading even when the server is not run-
	      ning.  The default is to	allow  reading,	 but  can
	      also  be	changed	 with  the ``readerswhenstopped''
	      option in inn.conf(5)

       -o     To limit the number of files that will be kept open
	      for  outgoing file feeds, use the ``-o'' flag.  The
	      default is  the  number  of  available  descriptors
	      minus some reserved for internal use.

       -p     If  the  ``-p'' flag is used, then the NNTP port is
	      assumed to be open  on  the  specified  descriptor.
	      (If this flag is used, then innd assumes it is run-
	      ning with the proper permissions and  it	will  not
	      call  chown(2)  on any files or directories it cre-
	      ates.)

       -P     If the ``-P'' flag is used, then the port specified
	      is  used	for listening for connections.	innd will
	      need to have been executed with enough  permissions
	      to open the specified port.

       -r     If  the ``-r'' flag is used, the server will renum-
	      ber the active file as if	 a  ``renumber''  command
	      were sent.

       -s     If  the  ``-s'' flag is used, then innd will not do
	      any work but will instead just check the syntax  of
	      the  newsfeeds  file.   It  will exit with an error

								3

INND(8)							  INND(8)

	      status if there are any errors; the  actual  errors
	      will be reported in syslog(3).

       -t     Change  the timeout period before flushing to time-
	      out seconds.

       -u     The logs are normally buffered; use the ``-u'' flag
	      to have them unbuffered.

       -Z     The  ``-Z''  flag turns off streaming, so that innd
	      will not accept the `mode stream' or other  stream-
	      ing commands.

       Inndstart is a small front-end program that opens the NNTP
       port, sets its userid and groupid to the news  maintainer,
       and  then  execs	 innd  with the ``-p'' flag and a minimal
       secure, environment.  This is a	small,	easily-understood
       front-end program that can be used if a site does not want
       to run innd with root privileges.

CONTROL MESSAGES
       Arriving articles that have a Control  header  or  have	a
       Subject	header	that  starts  with  the	 five  characters
       ``cmsg '' are called control  messages.	 Except	 for  the
       cancel message, these messages are implemented by external
       programs in the <pathcontrol in	inn.conf>  directory,  if
       <usecontrolchan	in  inn.conf> is ``false''.  (Cancel mes-
       sages update the history database, so they must be handled
       internally;  the	 cost of syncing, locking, then unlocking
       would be too high given the number of cancel messages that
       are received.)

       When a control message arrives, the first word of the text
       is converted to lowercase except for ``cancel''	and  used
       as  the	name of the program to execute; if the named pro-
       gram does not exist, then a program named <pathcontrol  in
       inn.conf>/default is executed.

       All  control  programs  are  invoked with four parameters.
       The first is the address of the person who posted the mes-
       sage;  this  is	taken  from  the  Sender header.  If that
       header is empty, then it is taken from  the  From  header.
       The  second  parameter  is the address to send replies to;
       this is taken from the Reply-To header.	If that header is
       empty then the poster's address is used.	 The third param-
       eter will be a name under which the article is filed, rel-
       ative  to  the news spool directory.  The fourth parameter
       is the host that sent the article,  as  specified  on  the
       Path line.

       If  <usecontrolchan  in inn.conf> is ``true'', all control
       messages except for the cancel  will  never  processed  by
       external	 program  fork'ed  by  innd.  Instead they can be
       processed  by  controlchan  script  which  is  invoked  as

								4

INND(8)							  INND(8)

       channel	program	 by  innd,  and	 you  need to setup news-
       feeds(5) to use this script.   Processing  by  controlchan
       can  reduce excessive load if many control messages arrive
       in a short time.

       The distribution of control message is also different from
       those of standard articles.

       Control messages are normally filed in the newsgroup named
       control.	 They can be filed in subgroups,  however,  based
       on  the	control message command.  For example, a newgroup
       message will be filed in control.newgroup  if  that  group
       exists, otherwise it will be filed in control.

       Sites  may  explicitly  have  the ``control'' newsgroup in
       their subscription list, although it is	usually	 best  to
       exclude	it.   If  a  control message is posted to a group
       whose name ends with the four characters ``.ctl'' then the
       suffix  is  stripped  off  and what is left is used as the
       group name.  For	 example,  a  cancel  message  posted  to
       ``news.admin.ctl''  will	 be  sent  to all sites that sub-
       scribe to ``control''  or  ``news.admin.''   Newgroup  and
       rmgroup messages receive additional special treatment.  If
       the message is approved and posted  to  the  name  of  the
       group  being  created or removed, then the message will be
       sent to all sites whose subscription patterns would  cause
       them to receive articles posted in that group.

       If  <mergetogroups in inn.conf> is ``true'', if an article
       is posted to a newsgroup that starts with the  three  let-
       ters  ``to.''  it  will get special treatment if the news-
       group does not exist in the active file:	 the  article  is
       filed  into  the	 newsgroup  ``to''  and it is sent to the
       first site named after the prefix.  For example, a posting
       to  ``to.uunet''	 will  be filed in ``to'' and sent to the
       site ``uunet.''

PROTOCOL DIFFERENCES
       Innd implements the NNTP commands defined in RFC 977, with
       the following differences:

       1.     The   ``list''  may  be  followed	 by  an	 optional
	      ``active'',  ``active.times'',  ``newsgroups''   or
	      ``subscription''	argument.   This common extension
	      is not fully supported; see nnrpd(8).

       2.     The ``authinfo user'' and	 ``authinfo  pass''  com-
	      mands are implemented.  These are based on the ref-
	      erence Unix implementation; see  draft-barber-nntp-
	      imp-07.txt for more detail.

       3.     A	 new command, ``mode reader'', is provided.  This
	      command will cause the server to pass  the  connec-
	      tion  on	to  nnrpd.  The command ``mode query'' is

								5

INND(8)							  INND(8)

	      intended for future use, and is  currently  treated
	      the same way.

       4.     The  commands to support streaming transfer ``check
	      messageid'' and  ``takethis  messageid''	are  pro-
	      vided.

       5.     A	 batch	transfer command ``xbatch byte-count'' is
	      also provided. This command  will	 read  byte-count
	      bytes  and  store	 them  for  later  processing  by
	      rnews(1) (which must be  started	separately).  See
	      the programs innxbatch and sendxbatches.sh.

       6.     The  only other commands implemented are ``head'' ,
	      ``help'' , ``ihave'' , ``quit'' , and ``stat''.

HEADER MODIFICATIONS
       Innd modifies as few article headers as possible, although
       it could be better in this area.

       The following headers, if present, are removed:
	      Date-Received
	      Posted
	      Posting-Version
	      Received
	      Relay-Version
       Empty  headers  and  headers  that  consist of nothing but
       whitespace are also dropped.

       The local site's name (as determined by	the  ``pathhost''
       value   in  inn.conf(5))	 and  an  exclamation  point  are
       prepended to the Path header, if the first site's name  in
       the header is different from local one.

       The Xref header is removed and a new one created.

       The Lines header will be added if it is missing.

       Innd  does not rewrite incorrect headers.  For example, it
       will not replace	 an  incorrect	Lines  header,	but  will
       reject the article.

LOGGING
       Innd  reports all incoming articles in its log file.  This
       is a text file with a variable number  of  space-separated
       fields in one of the following formats:
	      mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm + feed <Message-ID> site...
	      mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm j feed <Message-ID> site...
	      mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm c feed <Message-ID> site...
	      mon dd hh:mm:ss.mmm - feed <Message-ID> reason...

       There can also be a hostname and size field after the Mes-
       sage-ID depending on the ``nntplinklog''	 and  ``logsize''
       options in inn.conf(5)

								6

INND(8)							  INND(8)

       The  first three fields are the date and time to millisec-
       ond resolution.	The fifth field is the site that sent the
       article	(based on the Path header) and the sixth field is
       the article's Message-ID; they will be a question mark  if
       the information is not available.

       The   fourth  field  indicates  whether	the  article  was
       accepted or not.	 If it is a plus sign, then  the  article
       was  accepted.  If it is the letter ``j'' then the article
       was accepted, but all of newsgroups have an ``j'' in their
       active  field,  so the article was filed into the ``junk''
       newsgroup.  If the fourth field is the letter ``c'',  then
       a  cancel message was accepted before the original article
       arrived.	  In  all  three  cases,  the  article	has  been
       accepted and the ``site...'' field contains the space-sep-
       arated list of sites to which the article is being sent.

       If the fourth field is a minus sign, then the article  was
       rejected.  The reasons for rejection include:
	      "%s" header too long
	      "%s" wants to cancel <%s> by "%s"
	      Article exceeds local limit of %s bytes
	      Article posted in the future -- "%s"
	      Bad "%s" header
	      Can't write history
	      Duplicate
	      Duplicate "%s" header
	      EOF in headers
	      Linecount %s != %s +- %s
	      Missing %s header
	      No body
	      No colon-space in "%s" header
	      No space
	      Space before colon in "%s" header
	      Too old -- "%s"
	      Unapproved for "%s"
	      Unwanted newsgroup "%s"
	      Unwanted distribution "%s"
	      Whitespace in "Newsgroups" header -- "%s"
       Where ``%s'', above, is replaced by more specific informa-
       tion.

       Note that if an article is  accepted,  and  <wanttrash  in
       inn.conf> is set to ``yes'' and none of the newsgroups are
       valid, it will be logged with two lines, a ``j'' line  and
       a minus sign line.

       Innd  also  makes  extensive  reports through syslog.  The
       first word of the log message will be the name of the site
       if  the	entry  is  site-specific (such as a ``connected''
       message).  The first word will be ``SERVER'' if	the  mes-
       sage  relates  to  the  server itself, such as when a read
       error occurs.

								7

INND(8)							  INND(8)

       If the second word is the four letters  ``cant''	 then  an
       error is being reported.	 In this case, the next two words
       generally name the system call  or  library  routine  that
       failed,	and  the  object  upon which the action was being
       performed.  The rest of the line may contain other  infor-
       mation.

       In other cases, the second word attempts to summarize what
       change has been made, while the rest  of	 the  line  gives
       more  specific  information.  The word ``internal'' gener-
       ally indicates an internal logic error.

SIGNALS
       Innd will catch SIGTERM and SIGDANGER  and  then	 it  will
       shutdown.   If  ``-d''  flag  is used, SIGINT also will be
       catched and innd will shutdown.

       Innd will catch SIGUSR1 signal and  recreate  the  control
       channel which is typically used for ctlinnd(8).

HISTORY
       Written	by  Rich  $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNet-
       News.  This is revision 1.1.2.1, dated 1999/06/12.

SEE ALSO
       active(5), ctlinnd(8), crosspost(8),  dbz(3),  history(5),
       incoming.conf(5),   inn.conf(5),	 newsfeeds(5),	nnrpd(8),
       rnews(1), syslog(8).

								8

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