NAME

     active, active.times - list of active Usenet newsgroups

DESCRIPTION

     The file  /usr/local/news/etc/active  lists  the  newsgroups
     that  the  local  site  receives.   Each newsgroup should be
     listed only once.  Each  line  specifies  one  group;  their
     order  in  the file does not matter.  Within each newsgroup,
     articles are assigned unique names, which are  monotonically
     increasing numbers.

     If an article is posted to newsgroups not mentioned in  this
     file,  those newsgroups are ignored.  If no valid newsgroups
     are specified, the article is rejected.

     Each line consists of four fields specified by a space:

                  name himark lomark flags

     The first field is the name of the  newsgroup.   The  second
     field  is  the  highest article number that has been used in
     that newsgroup.  The  third  field  is  the  lowest  article
     number  in  the  group;  this number is not guaranteed to be
     accurate, and should only be taken to be a hint.  Note  that
     because  of  article cancellations, there may be gaps in the
     numbering sequence.  If the lowest article number is greater
     then  the highest article number, then there are no articles
     in the newsgroup.  In order to make it possible to update an
     entry in-place without rewriting the entire file, the second
     and third fields are padded out with leading zeros  to  make
     them a fixed width.

     The fourth field can contain one of the following flags:

          y        Local postings are allowed
          n        No local postings are allowed, only remote ones
          m        The group is moderated and all postings must be approved
          j        Articles in this group are not kept, but only passed on
          x        Articles cannot be posted to this newsgroup
          =foo.bar Articles are locally filed into the ``foo.bar'' group

     If a newsgroup has the ``j'' flag, then no articles will  be
     filed  into  that newsgroup and local postings to that group
     should not be generated.  If an article for such a newsgroup
     is  received  from  a remote site, it will be filed into the
     ``junk'' newsgroup if it is not cross-posted.  This is  dif-
     ferent  from  not  having  a  newsgroup  listed  in the file
     because sites can subscribe  to  ``j''  newsgroups  and  the
     article will be propagated to them.

     If the fourth field of a  newsgroup  starts  with  an  equal
     sign,  then  the  newsgroup  is  an  alias.  Articles can be
     posted to the group, but will be treated  as  if  they  were
     posted  to the group named after the equal sign.  The second
     and third fields  are  ignored.   Note  that  the  Newsgroup
     header is not modified (Alias groups are typically used dur-
     ing  a  transition,   and   are   typically   created   with
     ctlinnd(8)). An alias newsgroup should not point to another 
     alias.

     The file /usr/local/news/etc/active.times provides a chrono-
     logical record of when newsgroups are created.  This file is
     normally updated by innd(8) whenever a ctlinnd  ``newgroup'' 
     command is done.  Each line consist of three fields:

          name time creator

     The first field is the name of the  newsgroup.   The  second
     field is the time it was created, expressed as the number of
     seconds since the epoch - i.e.,  a  time_t;  see  gettimeof-
     day(2).   The  third field is the electronic mail address of
     the person who created the group.

HISTORY

     Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for  InterNetNews.
     This is revision 1.13, dated 1996/10/29.

SEE ALSO