NEWS.DAILY (8)

NAME
     news.daily - do regular Usenet system administration

SYNOPSIS
     news.daily [ keyword... ]


DESCRIPTION
     News.daily  performs  a  number  of   important   Usenet   administrative
     functions.   This  includes  producing a status report, removing old news
     articles,  processing  log  files,  rotating  the  archived  log   files,
     renumbering  the  active file, removing any old socket files found in the
     ``firewall'' directory, and collecting the output.  This  program  should
     be run under the news administrator's id, not as root.

     By default, news.daily performs all of its functions and mails the output
     to  the  news  administrator, <config$NEWSMASTER> (typically usenet.)  By
     specifying ``keywords'' on the command line, it is possible to modify the
     functions  performed,  as well as change the arguments given to expire(8) 
     and expireover(8) .

     News.daily should be run once a day, typically out of cron(8).  It may be
     run more often, but such invocations should at least use the ``notdaily''
     keyword to prevent the log files from being  processed  and  rotated  too
     fast.

     The shlock(1)  program is used to prevent simultaneous executions.

KEYWORDS

     The following keywords may be used:

     delayrm
          This uses the ``-z'' flag when invoking expire and expireover.   The
          names of articles to be removed are written to a temporary file, and
          then removed after expiration by calling expirerm(8) .

     expctl=path
          Specify the file to use as the expire.ctl(5) file for expire.

     expdir=path
          By default, expire builds the new history(5)  file  and  database  in
          the  same  directory  as  the  current  files.   Using  this keyword
          specifies a different local to build the new files (by  passing  the
          ''-d''  flag  to  expire),  which  will  then  be moved to the right
          location when finished.

     nostat
          This keyword disables the status report generated  by  innstat  (see
          newslog(8) ).   Without  this keyword, the status report is the first
          function performed, just prior to obtaining the news.daily lock.

     notdaily
          By default news.daily expects to be run only once a  day.  Use  this
          keyword  any extra times news.daily is run in the day and the normal
          logfile processing (and rotation) will not be done.

     noexpire
          By default, expire is invoked to remove old  news  articles.   Using
          this keyword disables this function.

     noexplog
          Expire        normally        appends         information         to
          <config$_PATH_MOST_LOGS>/expire.log                       (typically
          /var/log/news/expire.log)  (see  newslog(5) ).   Using  this  keyword
          causes  the  expire  output  to  be  handled as part of news.daily's
          output.  It has no effect if the ``noexpire'' keyword is used.

     flags='expire\ args'
          By default, expire is invoked  with  the  an  argument  of  ``-v1''.
          Using  this  keyword  changes  the arguments to those specified.  Be
          careful to use  quotes  if  multiple  arguments  are  needed.   This
          keyword has no effect if the ``noexpire'' keyword is used.

     nologs
          After expiration, scanlogs(8)  is invoked to process the  log  files.
          Using this keyword disables all log processing functions.

     norotate
          By default, log processing includes rotating and  cleaning  out  log
          files.  Using this keyword disables the rotating and cleaning aspect
          of  the  log  processing:  the  logs  files  are  only  scanned  for
          information and no contents are altered.

          This keyword has no effect if the ``nologs'' keyword is  used.   The
          ``norotate'' keyword is passed on to scanlogs if it is invoked.

     norenumber
          This keyword disables the ctlinnd(8)  renumber operation.   Normally,
          the low-water mark for all newsgroups (see active(5) ) is reset.

     norm By default, any socket ctlinnd socket that has not been modified for
          two  days  will  be  removed.   Using  this  keyword  disables  this
          function.

     nomail
          News.daily normally sends a mail message containing the  results  to
          the  administrator.   Using  this  keyword causes this message to be
          sent to stdout and stderr instead.  Normally, all utilities  invoked
          by  the  script have their stdout and stderr redirected into a file.
          If the file is empty, no message is sent.

     expireover
          The expireover program is  called  after  expiration  to  purge  the
          overview databases.

     expireoverflags='expireover\ args'
          If the ``expireover'' keyword is used, this keyword may be  used  to
          specify  the  flags  to be passed to expireover.  If the ``delayrm''
          keyword is used, then the default value is ``-z'' and  the  list  of
          deleted files; otherwise, the default value is ``-s''.

     /full/path
          The program specified by the given path is executed just before  any
          expiration  is  done.   A  typical  use  is  to specify an alternate
          expiration program  and  use  the  ``noexpire''  keyword.   Multiple
          programs may be specified; they will be invoked in order.

HISTORY
     News.daily  and  this  manual  page   written   by   Landon   Curt   Noll
     <chongo@toad.com>  and  Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>.  This is revision
     1.11, dated 1996/12/10.

SEE ALSO
     active(5) ,  ctlinnd(8) ,  expire(8) ,  fastrm(8) ,  newslog(5) ,  newslog(8) ,
     innwatch.ctl(5) , shlock(1) .