PRUNEHISTORY(8) InterNetNews Documentation PRUNEHISTORY(8)NAME
prunehistory - Remove tokens from Usenet history file
SYNOPSIS
prunehistory [-p] [-f filename]
DESCRIPTION
prunehistory modifies a history(5)-format text file to "remove" a set of tokens from it. The tokens are removed by overwriting them with
spaces, so that the size and position of any following entries does not change. This has an effect similar to expiring the article, in
that it is still mentioned in the history database but cannot be retrieved.
prunehistory reads the standard input. The input is taken as a set of lines. Blank lines and lines starting with a number sign ("#") are
ignored. All other lines should consist of a message-ID followed by zero or more other fields (which are ignored). The message-ID is used
as the dbz(3) key to get an offset into the text file. Since innd only appends to the text file, prunehistory does not need to have any
interaction with it.
OPTIONS -p prunehistory will normally complain about lines that do not follow the correct format. If the -p flag is used, then the program will
silently print any invalid lines on its standard output. (Blank lines and comment lines are also passed through.)
This can be useful when prunehistory is used as a filter for other programs such as reap (a legacy program, probably no longer useful
with current versions of INN, but still available at <ftp://ftp.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/.subdisc1/local/jk.collection/>).
-f filename
The default name of the history file is pathdb/history; to specify a different name, use the -f flag.
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. Converted to POD by Julien Elie.
$Id: prunehistory.pod 8592 2009-08-20 23:46:25Z eagle $
SEE ALSO dbz(3), history(5), innd(8).
INN 2.5.2 2009-09-11 PRUNEHISTORY(8)
Check Out this Related Man Page
MAKEHISTORY(8) System Manager's Manual MAKEHISTORY(8)NAME
makehistory - tools to recover Usenet history database.
SYNOPSIS
makehistory [ -A oldtmp ] [ -a active ] [ -b ] [ -f filename ] [ -i ] [ -n ] [ -o ] [ -r ] [ -s size ] [ -T tmpdir ] [ -u [ -v ] ]
DESCRIPTION
Makehistory rebuilds the history(5) text file and the associated dbz(3) database. The default name of the text file is /var/lib/news/his-
tory; to specify a different name, use the ``-f'' flag. Makehistory scans the active(5) file to determine which newsgroup directories
within the spool directory, /var/spool/news, should be scanned. (If a group is removed, but its spool directory still exists, makehistory
will ignore it.) The program reads each file found and writes a history line for it.
After the text file is written, makehistory will build the dbz database.
OPTIONS -A If the ``-A'' flag is used then the argument given is the pathname makehistory can use to store a copy of the history file as it's
being built. It will be appended to, so existing data will not be lost (and so should be valid history entries).
-a If the ``-a'' flag is given then the argument is the active file to use rather than the default one of /var/lib/news/active.
-b If the ``-b'' flag is used, then makehistory will remove any articles that do not have valid Message-ID headers in them.
-f If the ``-f'' flag is used, then the database files are named file.dir and file.pag. If the ``-f'' flag is not used, then a tempo-
rary link to the name history.n is made and the database files are written as history.n.pag and history.n.dir.
-o If the ``-o'' flag is used, then the link is not made and any existing history files are overwritten. If the old database exists,
makehistory will use it to determine the size of the new database.
-i To ignore the old database use the ``-i'' flag. Using the ``-o'' flag implies the ``-i'' flag.
-s The program will also ignore any old database if the ``-s'' flag is used to specify the approximate number of entries in the new
database. Accurately specifying the size is an optimization that will create a more efficient database. (The size should be the
estimated eventual size of the file, typically the size of the old file.) For more information, see the discussion of dbzfresh and
dbzsize in dbz(3).
-u If the ``-u'' flag is given, then makehistory assumes that innd is running. It will pause the server while scanning, and then send
``addhist'' commands (see ctlinnd(8)) to the server for any article that is not found in the dbz database. The command ``makehis-
tory -bu'' is useful after a system crash, to delete any mangled articles and bring the article database back into a more consistent
state.
-v If the ``-v'' flag is used with the ``-u'' flag, then makehistory will put a copy of all added lines on its standard output.
-n To scan the spool directory without rebuilding the dbz files, use the ``-n'' flag. If used with ``-u'', the server will not be
paused while scanning.
-r To just build the dbz files from an existing text file, use the ``-r'' flag. The ``-i'' or ``-s'' flags can be useful if there are
no valid dbz files to use.
-T Makehistory needs to create a temporary file that contains one line for each article it finds, which can become very large. This
file is created in the /var/spool/news/in.coming/tmp directory. The ``TMPDIR'' environment variable may be used to specify a dif-
ferent directory. Alternatively, the ``-T'' flag may be used to specify a temporary directory. In addition, the sort(1) that is
invoked during the build writes large temporary files (often to /var/tmp but see your system manpages). If the ``-T'' flag is used,
then the flag and its value will be passed to sort. On most systems this will change the temporary directory that sort uses. if
used, this flag and its value will be passed on to the sort(1) command that is invoked during the build.
EXAMPLES
A typical way to use this program is with the following /bin/sh commands:
ctlinnd throttle "Rebuilding history file"
cd /var/lib/news
if makehistory -n -f history.n ; then
:
else
echo Error creating history file!
exit 1
fi
# The following line can be used to retain expired history
# It is not necessary for the history file to be sorted.
# awk 'NF==2 { print; }' <history >>history.n
# View history file for mistakes.
if makehistory -r -s `wc -l <history` -f history.n; then
mv history.n history
mv history.n.dir history.dir
mv history.n.pag history.pag
fi
ctlinnd go ''
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
Makehistory does not handle symbolic links. If the news spool area is split across multiple partitions, the following commands should
probably be run before the database is regenerated:
cd /var/spool/news
find . -type l -name '[1-9]*' -print | xargs -t rm
Make sure to run the command on all the appropriate partitions!
HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. This is revision 1.3, dated 1996/11/26.
SEE ALSO active(5), ctlinnd(8), dbz(3), filechan(8), history(5), innd(8), newsfeeds(5), makeactive(8), newsrequeue(8).
MAKEHISTORY(8)