NAME

     news.daily - do regular Usenet system administration

SYNOPSIS

     news.daily [ keyword... ]

DESCRIPTION

     News.daily performs a number of important Usenet administra-
     tive  functions.   This  includes producing a status report,
     removing old news articles, processing log  files,  rotating
     the  archived log files, renumbering the active file, remov-
     ing any old socket files found in  the  ``firewall''  direc-
     tory, and collecting the output.  This program should be run
     under the news administrator's id, not as root.

     By default, news.daily performs all  of  its  functions  and
     mails  the  output  to  the  news administrator, usenet.  By
     specifying ``keywords'' on the command line, it is  possible
     to  modify  the  functions  performed, as well as change the
     arguments given to expire(8) and expireover(8).

     News.daily should be  run  once  a  day,  typically  out  of
     cron(8).   It  may  be  run more often, but such invocations
     should at least use the ``notdaily'' keyword to prevent  the
     log files from being processed and rotated too fast.

     The shlock(1) program is used to prevent simultaneous execu-
     tions.

KEYWORDS

     The following keywords may be used:

     delayrm
          This uses the ``-z''  flag  when  invoking  expire  and
          expireover.   The  names  of articles to be removed are
          written to a temporary file,  and  then  removed  after
          expiration by calling expirerm(8).

     expctl=path
          Specify the file to use as the expire.ctl(5)  file  for
          expire.

     expdir=path
          By default, expire builds the new history(5)  file  and
          database  in  the  same directory as the current files.
          Using this keyword specifies a different local to build
          the  new  files (by passing the ''-d'' flag to expire),
          which will then be moved to  the  right  location  when
          finished.

     nostat
          This keyword disables the status  report  generated  by
          innstat  (see  newslog(8)).   Without this keyword, the
          status report is the  first  function  performed,  just
          prior to obtaining the news.daily lock.

     notdaily
          By default news.daily expects to be  run  only  once  a
          day. Use this keyword any extra times news.daily is run
          in the day and the normal logfile processing (and rota-
          tion) will not be done.

     noexpire
          By default, expire is invoked to remove old news  arti-
          cles.  Using this keyword disables this function.

     noexplog
          Expire     normally     appends     information      to
          /news/log/expire.log (see newslog(5)).  Using this key-
          word causes the expire output to be handled as part  of
          news.daily's  output.   It has no effect if the ``noex-
          pire'' keyword is used.

     flags='expire args'
          By default, expire is invoked with the an  argument  of
          ``-v1''.   Using  this keyword changes the arguments to
          those specified.  Be careful to use quotes if  multiple
          arguments  are  needed.   This keyword has no effect if
          the ``noexpire'' keyword is used.

     nologs
          After expiration, scanlogs(8) is invoked to process the
          log  files.   Using  this keyword disables all log pro-
          cessing functions.

     norotate
          By default, log processing includes rotating and clean-
          ing  out  log  files.   Using this keyword disables the
          rotating and cleaning aspect of the log processing: the
          logs files are only scanned for information and no con-
          tents are altered.

          This keyword has no effect if the ``nologs'' keyword is
          used.   The  ``norotate'' keyword is passed on to scan-
          logs if it is invoked.

     norenumber
          This keyword disables the  ctlinnd(8)  renumber  opera-
          tion.   Normally, the low-water mark for all newsgroups
          (see active(5)) is reset.

     norm By default, any socket ctlinnd socket that has not been
          modified  for  two  days  will  be removed.  Using this
          keyword disables this function.

     nomail
          News.daily normally sends a mail message containing the
          results  to  the  administrator.   Using  this  keyword
          causes this message to be sent  to  stdout  and  stderr
          instead.  Normally, all utilities invoked by the script
          have their stdout and stderr redirected  into  a  file.
          If the file is empty, no message is sent.

     expireover
          The expireover program is called  after  expiration  to
          purge the overview databases.

     expireoverflags='expireover args'
          If the ``expireover'' keyword is used, this keyword may
          be  used  to  specify the flags to be passed to expire-
          over.  If the ``delayrm'' keyword  is  used,  then  the
          default  value is ``-z'' and the list of deleted files;
          otherwise, the default value is ``-s''.

     /full/path
          The program specified by the  given  path  is  executed
          just  before  any expiration is done.  A typical use is
          to specify an alternate expiration program and use  the
          ``noexpire''  keyword.  Multiple programs may be speci-
          fied; they will be invoked in order.

HISTORY

     News.daily and this manual page written by Landon Curt  Noll
     <chongo@toad.com>  and Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net>.  This
     is revision 1.11, dated 1996/12/10.

SEE ALSO

     active(5),  ctlinnd(8),  expire(8),  fastrm(8),  newslog(5),
     newslog(8), innwatch.ctl(5), shlock(1).