Linux Network Administrator Guide, Second Edition

doifarg

The requested command is performed if the command has an argument. If the command has no argument, the control message is ignored.

drop

The requested command is ignored.

log

A log message is sent to the stderr output of the innd process. This is normally directed out to the /var/log/news/errlog file.

log=file

This is the same as a log action, except the logfile is specified as per the rules given for the doit =file action.

mail

An email message is sent to the news administrator containing the requested command details. No other action takes place.

verify-*

If an action begins with the string ' verify- ', then the control message is authenticated using PGP (or GPG).[139]

So that you can see what a control.ctl file would look like in practice, here is a very short illustrative sample:

## Sample /etc/news/control.ctl
##
## Warning: You should not use this file, it is illustrative only.
## Control Message Handling
all:*:*:mail
checkgroups:*:*:mail
ihave:*:*:drop
sendme:*:*:drop
sendsys:*:*:log=sendsys
senduuname:*:*:log=senduuname
version:*:*:log=version
newgroup:*:*:mail rmgroup:*:*:mail
## Handle control messages for the eight most important news heirarchies
## COMP, HUMANITIES, MISC, NEWS, REC, SCI, SOC, TALK
checkgroups:*:comp.*|humanities.*|misc.*|news.*|rec.*|sci.*|soc.*|talk.*:drop
newgroup:*:comp.*|humanities.*|misc.*|news.*|rec.*|sci.*|soc.*|talk.*:drop
rmgroup:*:comp.*|humanities.*|misc.*|news.*|rec.*|sci.*|soc.*|talk.*:drop
checkgroups:[email protected]:*:verify-news.announce.newgroups
newgroup:[email protected]:comp.*|misc.*|news.*:verify-news.announce.newgroups
newgroup:[email protected]:rec.*|sci.*|soc.*:verify-news.announce.newgroups
newgroup:[email protected]:talk.*|humanities.*:verify-news.announce.newgroups
rmgroup:[email protected]:comp.*|misc.*|news.*:verify-news.announce.newgroups
rmgroup:[email protected]:rec.*|sci.*|soc.*:verify-news.announce.newgroups
rmgroup:[email protected]:talk.*|humanities.*:verify-news.announce.newgroups
## GNU (Free Software Foundation)
newgroup:[email protected]:gnu.*:doit
newgroup:news@*ai.mit.edu:gnu.*:doit
rmgroup:[email protected]:gnu.*:doit
rmgroup:news@*ai.mit.edu:gnu.*:doit
## LINUX (Newsfeed from news.lameter.com)
checkgroups:[email protected]:linux.*:doit
newgroup:[email protected]:linux.*:doit
rmgroup:[email protected]:linux.*:doit

Running INN

The inn source package provides a script suitable for starting inn at boot time. The script is usually called /usr/lib/news/bin/rc.news. The script reads arguments from another script, usually called /usr/lib/news/innshellvars, which contains definitions of the filenames and filepaths that inn will use to locate components it needs. It is generally considered a good idea to execute inn with the permissions of a non-root user, such as news.

To ensure that inn is started at boot time, you should check that /usr/lib/news/innshellvars is configured correctly and then call the /usr/lib/news/bin/rc.news script from a script executed at boot time.

Additionally, there are administrative tasks that must be performed periodically. These tasks are usually configured to be executed by the cron command. The best way to do this is to add the appropriate commands to your /etc/crontab file, or even better, create a file suitable for the /etc/cron.d directory, if your distribution provides one. An example of such a file might look like:

# Example /etc/cron.d/inn file, as used in the Debian distribution.
#
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/lib/news/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
# Expire old news and overview entries nightly, generate reports.
15 0 * * * news news.daily expireover lowmark delayrm
# Every hour, run an rnews -U. This is not only for UUCP sites, but
# also to process queued up articles put there by in.nnrpd in case
# innd wasn't accepting any articles.
10 * * * * news rnews -U

These commands will ensure that old news is automatically expired each day, and that any queued articles are processed each hour. Note also that they are executed with the permissions of the news user.

Managing INN: The ctlinnd Command

The INN news server comes with a command to manage its day-to-day operation. The ctlinnd command can be used to manipulate newsgroups and newsgroup feeds, to obtain the status, of the server, and to reload, stop, and start the server.

You'd normally get a summary of the ctlinnd command syntax using: