Man de Leafnode |
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leafnode(8) leafnode(8)
NAME
leafnode - NNTP server for small
(dialup) sites
SYNOPSIS
leafnode
DESCRIPTION
Leafnode is a
USENET package intended for small sites,
where there are few users and
little disk space, but where
a large number of groups is desired.
The design of
leafnode is intended to self-repair after
problems, and to require no manual
maintenance.
The leafnode program itself is
the NNTP server. It is run
from /etc/inetd.conf when someone
wants to read news. The
other parts of the package,
fetchnews and texpire, are
responsible for fetching new news
from another server, and
for deleting old news.
ACCESS CONTROL
No authentication or access control
is supported. This is
a deliberate omission:
Implementing this is a job which
should not be redone for each
and every service.
I recommend that either firewalling
or tcpd be used for
access control.
FILES
All these files and
directories must be writable by user
"news".
/usr/lib/leafnode/groupinfo contains
the information about
each USENET group.
In case of harm, it is rebuilt by
fetchnews(8).
/usr/lib/leafnode/news-server-name
contains the informa-
tion about every
USENET group on each news server. In
case of harm, it is rebuilt by
fetchnews(8).
/usr/lib/leafnode/news-server-name.active
is an empty file
created when fetchnews(8)
get information about every
USENET group on each news server.
/usr/lib/leafnode/config contains
the configuration param-
eters for leafnode. See
CONFIGURATION below.
/var/spool/news contains
the news articles; e.g.
/var/spool/news/alt/fan/agulbra
contains the articles in
the alt.fan.agulbra group.
Each directory contains arti-
cles in numbered files
(decimal numbers, monotonically
increasing), and a
special file called .overview which
contains the "Subject",
"From", "Date", "Message-ID",
"References", "Bytes" and "Lines"
headers for each article
in the group.
Several subdirectories are special:
/var/spool/news/out.going
contains local postings that
fetchnews(8) is to pass to the
upstream NNTP server.
/var/spool/news/failed.postings
contains local postings
that the upstream server rejected.
fetchnews(8) will cre-
ate files in this directory, but
none of the leafnode pro-
grams will delete anything in
it.
/var/spool/news/message.id contains
hard links to each
message; this is used
in place of the dbz database typi-
cally used by bigger servers.
(A directory such as this
is probably more efficient
for the small servers leafnode
is designed for but scales very
badly.)
/var/spool/news/interesting.groups
contains one 0-byte
file for each
group an NNTP client has asked to read.
leafnode will touch the the relevant
file when a LIST-
GROUP, XOVER, XHDR, STAT, HEAD,
BODY or ARTICLE command is
issued immediately after a GROUP
command is issued, and
fetchnews(8) will retrieve
all new articles in all groups
whose files have been either
- touched during the past timeout_short (see CON-
FIGURATION below) days, or
- touched more than once, and at least once within
the past timeout_long (see CONFIGURATION below)
days.
/etc/inetd.conf contains
the line which starts leafnode.
It is strongly recommended to
start leafnode as user news.
CONFIGURATION
All configuration
is done using the file /usr/lib/leafn-
ode/config. There is no
GUI configuration tool yet.
The file is in the common UNIX
format: One line per argu-
ment, white space allowed,
# starts a comment which lasts
until the end of the line.
Here is an example which
demonstrates all the bells and
whistles:
server=news02.bigprovider.com
server=newspost.otherprovider.ne.jp
port=128
username=username
password=password
newsgroups=otherprovider
newsgroups=fj.*
server=nntp.throught.ssh
viahost=localhost
port=1234
preconnect = su ssh-local-user -c "ssh
-f -C -L
1234:nntp.throught.ssh:119 -l ssh-remote-user ssh-
server sleep 20 > /dev/null"
supplement=sex.and.warez.com
# avoidances to fetch articles
timeout_short=2 # some users read newsgroups only
once unfortunately.
timeout_long=21 # some news groups don't have many
article, so keep it long.
timeout_active=14 # each 14 day, check new
news-
groups.
expire=7
# don't use much space.
groupexpire=local.* 21 # preserve local news.
groupexpire=*linux* 3 # don't use much space.
maxfetch=1000 # again,
don't use much space.
initialfetch=3000 # again, don't use much
space.
maxold=10
# again, don't use much space.
maxlines=1000 # again,
don't use much space.
maxgroups=5
# hate too much cross-posting.
"server" is used
by fetchnews(8) to select what NNTP
server to retrieve news from.
You can specify several
servers. And
you can add and decrease servers. But at
least one "server" is required.
"port" is used by fetchnews(8)
to choose a port number to
connect to the NNTP server.
"username" and "password"
are used by fetchnews(8) to
choose a user name and password
to be authorized a NNTP
connection by the NNTP server.
"newsgroups" entries
are used by fetchnews(8) to choose
news groups which are feeded by
the NNTP server. If a
system has fnmatch(),
a string is compared by it, so you
can use shell-styled globbing
rules like "*linux*". Oth-
erwise, it is
compared by strcmp() or strncmp(), so you
can use only one asterisk at the
end of a string like
"fj.*".
"viahost" is used by fetchnews(8)
to choose a host to con-
nect to the NNTP server.
It is useful to use ssh forwad-
ing ability.
"preconnect" is executed
by fetchnews(8) before making a
connection to the NNTP server.
It is used for using ssh
forwading ability.
Note: you shouldn't break a line in
the string. You have to
write as same as what you want to
execute.
"supplement" is old
leafnode's keyword. On this leafn-
ode+, it is same as "server" so
that use "server" entry
instead of "supplement."
"timeout_short" is
a number of days. Newsgroups which
have not been read, or have been
read only once, during
the timeout period
are marked as uninteresting. The
default value is 2 days.
"timeout_long" is also a
number of days. Newsgroups
which have not been read
at all during the timeout period
are marked as uninteresting. The
default value is 7 days.
"timeout_active" is
again a number of days. The active
database of each upstream server
is checked after this
number of days. The default value
is 7 days.
"expire" is the
number of days a thread should be kept
around. This many days after
it has last been read, a
discussion thread
will be deleted by texpire(8). This
parameter is mandatory.
"groupexpire" is a set of one string
and the number of
days separated spaces.
A thread in a newsgroup matched
with the string should be kept
around the number of days.
If a system has fnmatch(),
a string is compared by it, so
you can use shell-styled globbing
rules like "*linux*".
Otherwise, it is compared by strcmp()
or strncmp(), so you
can use only one asterisk at the
end of a string like
"fj.*". This
many days after it has last been read, a
discussion thread will be deleted
by texpire(8).
"maxfetch" specifies the maximum
number of articles fetch-
news(8) should fetch
from the upstream server in each
group. This limits the size
of the backlog a reader of a
group will see when
first subscribing. By default there
is no limit, so a new reader will
see all of the available
postings.
Warning: If you set maxfetch too
low, regular readers of a
group may not see all of the traffic
in that group. I
recommend setting
it to at least 1000-1500. ini-
tialfetch=3000 #again, don't use
much space
"initialfetch" specifies the maximum
number of articles
fetchnews(8) should fetch from
the upstream server in each
group at the first connection
to the server. By default
there is no
limit, so a new reader will see all of the
available postings.
"maxold" specifies the maximum
dates of articles fetch-
news(8) should fetch
from the upstream server in each
group. By default there
is 10 days limit, so a new reader
will see only new postings.
"maxlines" specifies the
maximum number of lines of arti-
cles fetchnews(8) should fetch
from the upstream server in
each group. By default there
is no limit, so a new reader
will see all of the available
postings.
"maxgroups" specifies the maximum
number of cross-posted
news groups of articles fetchnews(8)
should fetch from the
upstream server in each group.
By default there is no
limit, so a new reader will see
all of the available post-
ings.
In addition, "maxage" and "maxcrosspost"
are also used as
same as Cornelius's leafnode.
They are added to increase
compatibility.
PROTOCOL
Here are the NNTP commands supported
by this server.
ARTICLE
Return the headers and body text of an article.
Leafnode supports this imperfectly; the message-id
and article number of the article may
not be
reported in the reply line. This does not affect
any tested NNTP clients.
BODY Return the body text of an article. See ARTICLE.
GROUP Sets the current USENET
group and article pointer,
and returns the status information about
this
group.
HEAD Return the headers of an article. See ARTICLE.
HELP Accepted but I'm afraid it is not very helpful.
IHAVE Known but rejected. See fetchnews(8).
LAST Moves the article pointer back by 1.
LIST Lists the available USENET groups.
LISTGROUP
Lists the articles present in the current group, or
the argument group if an argument is present.
MODE Accepted and blithely ignored.
NEWGROUPS
Accepted but the reply is always empty. This com-
mand does not make sense for this server.
NEWNEWS
Accepted but the reply is always empty. This com-
mand does not make sense for this server.
NEXT Moves the article pointer forward by 1.
POST Post a new
article. Only scant syntax checking is
performed. The article is sent to the upstream
NNTP server by fetchnews(8).
QUIT Quit reading news.
SLAVE Accepted but ignored.
STAT Return the
availability of an article. See ARTI-
CLE.
XHDR Accepted, but
supported only for the "Subject",
"From", "Date", "Message-ID", "References", "Bytes"
and "Lines" headers.
XOVER Returns the "Subject",
"From", "Date", "Message-
ID", "References", "Bytes" and "Lines" headers for
the indicated article(s).
The rest of the commands given
in the NNTP RFC or added in
other servers are
left out in order to keep the server
simple and bug-free.
BUGS
None known.
AUTHOR AND LICENCE
Written by Arnt Gulbrandsen <agulbra@troll.no>
and copy-
right 1995 Troll
Tech AS, Postboks 6133 Etterstad, 0602
Oslo, Norway, fax +47 22646949.
Modified by Kazushi (Jam) Marukawa
<jam@pobox.com>. Copy-
right of the modifications 1998.
Use, modification and distribution
is allowed without lim-
itation, warranty, or liability
of any kind.
The development of leafnode has
been paid for by Uninett
AS (http://www.uninett.no/).
SEE ALSO
tcpd(8), hosts.allow(5),
fetchnews(8), texpire(8), check-
groups(8), RFC 977
Troll Tech AS 30 Oct 1995 1
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