snmail,v0.3.8(8)					      System Manager's Manual						  snmail,v0.3.8(8)

NAME

       snmail - mail-to-news filter

SYNOPSIS

       snmail [-sP] [listname [prefix]]

DESCRIPTION

       snmail  reads  a  single email message on standard input, and writes the converted message to standard output.  This output is suitable for
       feeding to snstore.

       snmail does these conversions: If the first line is a UUCP From_ line, it is silently discarded; a Newsgroups: line is added with the value
       of  prefixlistname  (prefix concatenated with listname), and other existing Newsgroups: lines are removed; and a Path: line is created from
       all Received: lines, which are removed; all header lines are unfolded; if no message ID exists, one is created; message IDs in  all  Refer-
       ences:  lines and In-Reply-To: lines are collected into a single References: line; all lines are rewritten to end in CRLF; and a lone .	on
       a line is written at the end of the message.

       snmail will accept and pass on messages with invalid header fields.

       snmail is meant to be run from a .forward or the /etc/aliases file (if you're using sendmail or similar) or from a .qmail file  (if  you're
       using qmail).  snmail may write status or error messages to standard error.

OPTIONS

       -s     Pipe  output  to snstore directly, do not write to standard output.  This is so the exit status is not lost in a shell pipeline.	If
	      you use this flag, it is also a good idea to also use -c (tell snstore to check if article already exists).

       Other options
	      snmail also accepts options intended for snstore, viz.  -c, -v, and -n, and these are passed on uninterpreted.

ARGUMENTS

       prefix is the prefix of the newsgroup; if not specified, it defaults to local.  (note the trailing .).  prefix  may  not  begin	with  a  .
	      (dot) but it may be empty.

       listname
	      completes  the newsgroup name; if not specified, it is the local part of the address in the Return-Path: line if it exists and isn't
	      empty; otherwise it is the local part of the messages' first From:.   So	if  the  message  originated  from  the  list  <linux-lem-
	      mings@vger.rutgers.edu>, then the default newsgroup becomes local.linux-lemmings.  listname may be empty if prefix isn't.

	      You  may	want  to have a file /var/spool/sn/prefixlistname/.nopost to deny posting from all and sundry, to prevent the mailing list
	      newsgroup from being contaminated.

	      prefix and listname may contain uppercase characters; these are converted to lower case.

USAGE

       There are two ways of forwarding mail to the sn news spool: directly from a user's mail address; or forwarded to a central address and then
       invoking  snmail.   The	central  concern here is permissions; while anyone can run snmail, not everyone may store mail in the spool.  Mail
       setups vary a lot, so basically you're on your own here.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       SNROOT If this is set and is not empty, the value is used in place of /var/spool/sn, the default news spool directory.

       PATH   If -s was specified, determines where to look for snstore, before looking in /usr/sbin.

EXIT STATUS

       snmail exits 0 if the message was successfully converted and written, or if the message ID already exists in the ID database and  the  mes-
       sage was not stored or converted.

       snmail exits with 1 on usage error, 2 on operational error, 3 if the mail message wasn't in the proper format.

N.B.								    Harold Tay							  snmail,v0.3.8(8)