Section: Maintenance Commands (8)Updated: Harold TayLocal indexUp
NAME
snntpd - small news server
SYNOPSIS
snntpd
[-t timeout]
[-P]
[-S]
[logger...]
DESCRIPTION
snntpd
is a small news server. It needs to be run under inetd or tcpserver,
as root or as the owner of /var/spool/sn.
snntpd
does
not fork into the background.
It expects to read and write from and to the network
on descriptors 0 and 1.
ARGUMENTS
logger...
(usually /usr/bin/logger)
is taken to be a logging program, and all log output is piped to it.
If
logger...
is not specified, log messages are directed to descriptor 2.
OPTIONS
-t timeout
specifies how long
snntpd
should wait for input before it gives up and exits.
timeout
is in seconds and defaults to 600.
-P
snntpd
includes it's pid in log output.
-S
Suppress NNTP greeting on startup. This is useful if you want to
perform authentication before running
snntpd,
or want to provide your own greeting, from a wrapper.
POSTING AND POSTING PERMISSIONS
Posts are usually handled externally by the
/usr/sbin/SNPOST
script,
which is responsible for fine-grain posting control; handling of
control messages; and the ultimate distribution of the posted
article.
snntpd
permits or denies posting in a very simple manner:
If
/var/spool/sn/.nopost
exists, posting is not allowed.
Otherwise, if the environment variable
POSTING_OK
is not set, posting is not allowed.
Otherwise if
POSTING_OK
is set (to the empty string), posting is generally allowed, and all
POSTed articles are piped to the
SNPOST
script, which has the final say in the matter. The value of
$POSTING_OK
is not currently used, but is reserved.
FILES
/var/spool/sn/.fifo
If this file exists, and is a fifo,
snntpd
will write the name of a newsgroup into it as that
newsgroup becomes the current one. If the fifo does not exist
snntpd
will not create it.
/var/spool/sn/.noservice
If this file exists,
snntpd
will display its first line and exit. If the file can't be read or
is empty, a default message is displayed. This is useful for
temporarily disabling the news server while you perform any
maintenance.
/var/spool/sn/.nopost
See
POSTING PERMISSIONS
above.
/var/spool/sn/.SNPOST
If this script or program exists, it is invoked instead of
SNPOST
to accept a posted article.
/var/spool/sn/news.group.name/.nopost
These files really belong to
SNPOST,
and it is unfortunate that
snntpd
has to check for their existence to determine the posting flag for
the LIST command. See
/usr/sbin/SNPOST.
/var/spool/sn/news.group.name/.info
If this file exists, its first line is taken as the
description of that group for use with the LIST NEWSGROUPS command.
/var/spool/sn/news.group.name/.times
is a binary file containing entry times, to support the
NEWNEWS
command.
/var/spool/sn/news.group.name/.created
is an empty file retained for it's timestamp, to support the
NEWGROUPS
command.
SIGNALS
If
snntpd
catches SIGHUP, the files
/var/spool/sn/{.fifo,.noservice,.nopost}
(see below) are checked again, as they are during startup. Other
signals have default behaviour.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See also
/usr/sbin/SNPOST
for a list of environment variables exported by
snntpd.
PATH
The PATH must be set such that
snntpd
can find
SNPOST
in order to accept postings.
If
PATH
does not include /usr/sbin, /usr/sbin will be appended to it.
POSTING_OK
This variable helps determine the site-wide posting policy. See
POSTING PERMISSIONS
above.
TCPREMOTEIP
If this value is set, it is taken to be the dotted-quad IP address
of the connecting client. If it is not set,
snntpd
attempts to derive it for itself, and then set its value.
TCPLOCALIP
as above, but for the server's dotted-quad IP.
SNROOT
If this is set and is not empty, the value is used everywhere in place of
/var/spool/sn,
the default news spool directory.