MODERATORS(5) File Formats Manual MODERATORS(5)NAME
moderators - submission addresses for moderated newsgroups
DESCRIPTION
When an unapproved article is posted locally to a moderated newsgroup, rather than being passed off to innd(8) for normal handling, it's
instead sent via e-mail to the submission address for that newsgroup. The file <pathetc in inn.conf>/moderators lists the submission
addresses for moderated newsgroups. This file is used by nnrpd(8), inews(1), and any other program that uses the GetModeratorAddress()
routine (see libinn(3).)
The moderators file is a list of associations between wildmat(3) patterns matching newsgroups and the submission address for those news-
groups. Blank lines and lines starting with a number sign (``#'') are ignored. All other lines should consist of those two fields sepa-
rated by a colon.
The second field, the submission address, may have at most one %s anywhere in it; if present, this will be replaced by the name of the
newsgroup with periods replaced by dashes. If there is a literal ``%'' in the submission address, it must be written as ``%%'' (even if
not followed by an ``s'').
Here is a sample file:
example.important:announce-request@example.com
example.*:%s@smtp.example.com
gnu.*:%s@prep.ai.mit.edu
*:%s@moderators.isc.org
Using the above file, postings to the moderated newsgroup in the left column will be sent to the address shown in the right column:
example.important announce-request@example.com
example.x.announce example-x-announce@smtp.example.com
gnu.emacs.sources gnu-emacs-sources@prep.ai.mit.edu
comp.sources.unix comp-sources-unix@moderators.isc.org
Periods are converted to dashes for historical reasons, from back in the days when periods in the local part of addresses may not be han-
dled correctly. It's probably no longer necessary, but so much now depends on it that it can't be easily changed.
It's intended that the sample moderators file included in the INN distribution always be sufficient for all world-wide newsgroups. The
hosts behind moderators.isc.org have graciously volunteered to handle forwarding tasks for all world-wide newsgroups so that individual
sites don't have to keep track of the submission addresses for moderated groups. The forwarding database used by moderators.isc.org is
coordinated by moderators-request@isc.org; if you know of a world-wide newsgroup hierarchy that is not correctly handled by modera-
tors.isc.org, please send the details to that address.
Given that, the only thing you should have to add to the sample file under normal circumstances are the forwarding addresses for local or
limited distribution moderated groups.
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. This is revision 1.6, dated 1999/05/09.
SEE ALSO inews(1), inn.conf(5), libinn(3), wildmat(3).
MODERATORS(5)
Check Out this Related Man Page
INEWS(1) General Commands Manual INEWS(1)NAME
inews - send a Usenet article to the local news server for distribution
SYNOPSIS
inews [ -h ] [ -D ] [ -O ] [ -R ] [ -S ] [ header_flags ] [ input ]
DESCRIPTION
Inews reads a Usenet news article (perhaps with headers) from the named file or standard input if no file is given. It adds some headers
and performs some consistency checks. If the article does not meet these checks (for example, too much quoting of old articles, or posting
to non-existent newsgroups) then the article is rejected. If it passes the checks, inews sends the article to the local news server as
specified in the inn.conf(5) file for distribution.
OPTIONS -h In the standard mode of operation, the input consists of the article headers, a blank line, and the message body. For compatibility
with older software, the ``-h'' flag must be used. If there are no headers in the message, then this flag may be omitted.
-O The default Organization header will be provided if none is present in the article or if the ``-o'' flag is not used. To prevent
adding the default, use the ``-O'' flag.
-D As a debugging aide, if the ``-D'' flag is used, the consistency checks will be performed, and the article will be sent to the stan-
dard output, rather then sent to the server.
-A -V -W
For compatibility with C News, inews accepts, but ignores, the ``-A'', ``-V'' and ``-W'' flags.
-N The C News ``-N'' flag is treated as the ``-D'' flag.
-S If a file named .signature exists in the user's home directory, inews will try to append it to the end of the article. If the file
cannot be read, or if it is too long (for example, more than four lines or one standard I/O buffer), or if some other problem
occurs, then the article will not be posted. To suppress this action use the ``-S'' flag.
-R If the ``-R'' flag is used then inews will reject any attempts to post control messages.
header_flags
Several headers may be specified on the command line, shown in the synopsis above as header_flags. Each of these flags takes a sin-
gle parameter; if the value is more than one word (for example, almost all Subject lines) then quotes must be used to prevent the
shell from splitting it into multiple words. The options, and their equivalent header, are as follows:
a Approved
c Control
d Distribution
e Expires
f From
w Followup-To
n Newsgroups
r Reply-To
t Subject
F References
o Organization
x Path prefix
If the ``-x'' flag is used, then its value will be the start of the header. Any other host will see the site in the header, and
therefore not offer the article to that site. The Path will always end not-for-mail.
NOTES
If an unapproved posting is made to a moderated newsgroup, inews will try to mail the article to the moderator for posting. It will query
the remote news server for a moderators listing. If that doesn't succeed, it will fallback to using the local moderators(5) file to deter-
mine the mailing address. If no address is found, it will use the inn.conf file to determine a ``last-chance'' host to try.
If the NNTP server needs to authenticate the client, inews will use the NNTPsendpassword(3) routine to authenticate itself. In order to do
this, the program will need read access to the passwd.nntp(5) file. This is typically done by having the file group-readable and making
inews run setgid to that group.
Inews exits with a zero status if the article was succesfully posted or mailed, or with a non-zero status if the article could not be
delivered.
Since inews will spool its input if the server is unavailable, it is usually necessary to run rnews(1) with the ``-U'' flag on a regular
basis, usually out of cron(8).
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. This is revision 1.27, dated 1996/10/29.
SEE ALSO moderators(5), inn.conf(5). rnews(1).
INEWS(1)