NAME

     makeactive - tool to recover Usenet active file.

SYNOPSIS

     makeactive [ -m ] [ -o ]

DESCRIPTION

     Makeactive invokes find(1) to get a list of all  directories
     in  the  news  spool  tree,  /news.  It discards directories
     named lost+found as well as those  that  have  a  period  in
     them.   It  scans  all  other  directories  for  all-numeric
     filenames and determines the highest and lowest number.  The
     program's  output is a set of active(5) file lines.  Because
     there is no way to know if a group is moderated or disabled,
     the  fourth field of all entries will be y.  Also, mid-level
     directories that aren't  newsgroups  will  also  created  as
     newsgroups   with  no  entries  (for  example,  there  is  a
     ``comp.sources.unix'' group, but no ``comp.sources'').

OPTIONS

     -m   If the ``-m''  flag  is  given,  then  makeactive  will
          attempt  to  adjust  the  highest  and  lowest  article
          numbers wherever possible.  If articles are found in  a
          newsgroup,  the  numbers  will  reflect  what  what was
          found.  If no articles are found in  a  newsgroup,  the
          high number from the old file will be kept, and the low
          number will be set to one more then  the  high  number.
          This flag may only be used if the ``-o'' flag is used.

     -o   If the ``-o'' flag is used,  makeactive  will  read  an
          existing  active  file  for the list of group names and
          just renumber all groups.  It will preserve the  fourth
          field  of  the  active file if one is present.  This is
          analogous  to  the  ctlinnd(8)  ``renumber''   command,
          except  that  innd(8)  should throttled or not running.
          Do not use this flag  with  output  redirected  to  the
          standard active file!

EXIT STATUS

     Makeactive  exits  with  non-zero  status  if  any  problems
     occurred.

EXAMPLES

     A typical way to use  the  program  is  with  the  following
     /bin/sh commands:
          ctlinnd throttle "Rebuilding active file"
          TEMP=${TMPDIR-/var/tmp}/act$$
          if [ -f /usr/local/news/etc/active ] ; then
              if makeactive -o >${TEMP} ; then
                  mv ${TEMP} /usr/local/news/etc/active
              fi
          else
              if makeactive >${TEMP} ; then
                  # Edit to restore moderated
                  # and aliased groups.
                  ...
                  mv ${TEMP} /usr/local/news/etc/active
              fi
          fi
          ctlinnd reload active "New active file"
          ctlinnd go ''

HISTORY

     Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for  InterNetNews.
     This is revision 1.3, dated 1996/10/29.

SEE ALSO

     active(5),  ctlinnd(8),  dbz(3),  filechan(8),   history(5),
     innd(8), newsfeeds(5), makehistory(8), newsrequeue(8).